


Veilfall - A Rousing Rebirth

by EphemeralNight



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Sex, Aliens, Alternate History, Eldritch Abominations, F/F, F/M, Female Protagonist, Forced Breeding, Gen, Genderbending, Magical Girls, Multi, Noodle Incidents, Other, Pansexual Character, Parent/Child Incest, Porn Watching, Public Nudity, Rape/Non-con Elements, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sex, Sex Work, Slut Pride, Superpower Sex, Tentacle Monsters, Tentacle Rape, Tentacle Sex, Trans Female Character, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:56:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 148,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29926179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EphemeralNight/pseuds/EphemeralNight
Summary: After being thrust unexpectedly into the world of the supernatural, a neophyte magical girl has to balance her mundane career in indie porn against the lurking threat of fey creatures hunting lonely men in her city, while the tenuous balance in a fellow magical girl's life comes crashing down on them both in this explicit sexually-charged journey into a dark magically-influenced alternate future.
Kudos: 13





	1. CAMERON

_April 17th, 2027_   
_Berkeley, California_   
_Aphron Residence_

The morning air was brisk, a counterpoint to the baking sun slanting in from the east and beating on the back of my neck while I braced myself at the top of the _big_ folding ladder, and waited for my dad to feed me the end of the power cord we were trying to run out of the attic of our house.

Below me, inside the garage, I heard a car start. The culprit could only be my younger sister, Andreya, who'd just gotten her license.

I leaned back to look down, and shouted in exasperation, "Dreya! You can't get out right now!"

The engine revved, and I had a split second of horrified realization followed by a split second visual of the back of our car slamming into the legs of the ladder. The ladder folded with a crunch of twisting metal. I tried to jump clear, but I barely had time to move before the ladder pivoted against the ground and the plastic top with the warning labels on it caught me in the gut and flung me down the driveway.

I didn't remember hitting the ground. The next thing I was aware of was that weird taste in my sinuses that told me I had a concussion, and a great deal of excruciating pain.

At the bottom of my field of vision, I could see a thing on my chest. A thing that was pointy, brownish red, and wet. It was located at about where a feeling of stabbing agony was pulsing through me over and over.

I tried to scream. All that came out of my mouth was a rush of blood, which splashed back all over my face. Distantly, I was aware of raised voices, shouting. I couldn't understand what they were saying.

My dad appeared in my field of vision, phone pressed to his ear. Everything was going kind of grey. "Just. Hold. On. Hold on. Ambulance is coming. Please, Cameron! Please! Just hold on!"

It belatedly occurred to me that I still wasn't breathing. But there wasn't any air. There was only blood. My vision was going dark around the edges. I was really, actually dying. Worse, I was dying a _virgin_. That was just fundamentally intolerable on every level. It should have been funny, that _that_ was the thought that drifted to the forefront of my mind, but it really, really wasn't.

And then there was a bright white plushy rabbit in a top hat. It hopped casually up onto my chest to peer at my face, the only thing that wasn't grayed out in my field of vision. I frowned in consternation. Of all the things I could hallucinate in my dying moments, I was profoundly disappointed that _this_ was all I got.

"What a surprising misfortune, puu!" the hallucination said in a chirpy cutesy voice. "This certainly looks like a fatal wound. Chuu! Oh well."

Even the pain was starting to slip away into the darkness that crept over my eyes, which was a relief. It was also probably a bad sign. I was having trouble remembering how to stay awake.

Suddenly the stuffed rabbit met my eyes and reared back. "Oh! You can see me." It's eyes glowed gold. "Puu?! What's this? You already have a soul! And not just any soul either! A fifth generation reinforcement model! Where in the world could you have gotten one of those from, puu?"

Not. Funny. Stupid dying brain.

"A mystery for now, puu! But lucky for you. I suppose I should reset it for you so it doesn't go to waste... there! Now remember, this part is important, chuu, when you wake up, you'll need to..."

Darkness.

* * *

_October 3rd, 2026_   
_Berkeley, California_   
_Maybeck Highschool_

"Alright, who can tell me what this is?"

Mr. Kana tapped the wall screen behind him, and an image appeared. The photo he'd chosen for this was actually pretty famous. It was set in a yellowish sky full of dramatic clouds, and the subject of the photo bore some small resemblance to a collection of lilypads tangled together by their roots as they floated in a pocket of clear air. If one looked really close, the details of the image betrayed its deceptive sense of scale. Each of those lilypads were a mile across or more.

A few of my classmates put their hands up, and Mr. Kana called on a girl in the front row. "It's the Cloud Forest. The Cytherian capitol on Venus."

Mr. Kana nodded. "Yes. I'm sure most of you have seen this. For those of you who haven't. This is the iconic photo taken by the _Venera Thirteen_ probe in the year nineteen-eighty-two. Who can tell me why this shocked the scientific community of the time?"

I put my hand up, but didn't get called on. Mr. Kana pointed at a boy in a band t-shirt.

"Like, because we don't have any giant floating plants on Earth?" the boy said.

Mr. Kana nodded kindly, but I already knew he was going to disagree. "That certainly contributed. Finding plant-life in the upper atmosphere of Venus _was_ unexpected, but that alone wouldn't have been shocking. Anyone else?"

I put my hand up again, and this time I got called on. "It was shocking because there were radio signals coming from it. In English."

Mr. Kana smiled. "Precisely. It may seem obvious today, but all of us grew up in a world where this mystery is normal, but back then..." Mr. Kana shook his head. "The fronds of the Cloud Forests are hollow, with breathable air and a habitable ecosystem inside, which has allowed a starting population of humans approximating six-hundred-thousand to survive and develop there for nearly a century. Cytherian history doesn't go back any further than that, but they don't know how they got there either."

I thought Mr. Kana was kind of underselling it. It was pretty well agreed that the original Cytherian population was taken to Venus from the southern United States at some point during the 1930s. A handful of those people were even still alive. And yet, there were no accounts of the trip, no writing, no recordings, no _memories_.

"Over the following years," Mr. Kana said, "pockets of humanity were discovered one by one all over the solar system. The Venusian Cloud Forests. The underground Martian Wombwalls. The Grid of Ganymede. The Inferno Domes on Titan. To this day, we still don't have an explanation."

Someone at the back put his hand up and Mr. Kana called on him. "You say we don't know, but... it had to be aliens, right? Extrasolar aliens, I mean, not the acugons."

"There are certainly those who think so," Mr. Kana said. "Unfortunately, all we have is supposition. There simply isn't any evidence."

* * *

_April 18th, 2027_   
_Berkeley, California_   
_Aphron Residence_

I came awake all at once. It was almost disorienting, how much it wasn't disorienting. There was no sense of effort, or of resistance, to suddenly being aware and oriented.

There wasn't any sensation at all, actually. The world was grayscale, and there weren't any shadows, but otherwise I could see my house just fine, and I could hear the usual sounds of my neighborhood.

I just couldn't feel my body.

I looked down at myself, and saw a pair of very large breasts. By which I mean I saw my own naked chest, which had breasts attached to it, and my torso itself was definitely a different shape than what I was used to. This, naturally, completely distracted me from the mystery of my missing senses.

Stunned, I tried to touch one of them, but my hand went right through, clipping like a cheaply animated game model. I felt nothing but a phantom tingle of expectation. It wasn't just my chest either. My stomach was tight and lean, showing a hint of abs, and all my body hair was completely gone. Further down, I had a prominent soft-looking cleft where my male organs used to be. My legs, too, were missing their hair and shaped different and I definitely didn't used to have that much of a gap between my thighs.

Oh, and my feet weren't touching the ground.

The last thing I remembered was dying, impaled through my chest.

It might have been a while before I managed to string another two thoughts together.

The word 'dead' was kind of weird, when you thought about the way it was often used. Even when it is said that someone or something _is_ dead, the only clear meaning is that they had, at some point in the past, died. It established nothing about their ongoing state.

I decided that wondering if I was _really_ dead was not a useful question. Labeling my state of being as _dead_ or _not dead_ wouldn't actually give me any new information. It would just be a waste of time.

I continued to exist. I could see, and I could hear. I found I could move, if I focused on wanting to move. I was still me. I even had a... an image of a body. Even if this body image definitely wasn't based _at all_ on my real body. I very much wanted to know where it came from.

Because I'd always thought being a female soul trapped in a male body was _just a figure of speech_.

The whole thing where suddenly I was somehow a ghost was objectively a much bigger deal, I knew, but I was really kind of stuck on the part where my ghostly self looked like a buxom girl.

Really. This explained a lot.

It wasn't something I'd thought about in concrete terms, before. I'd always felt detached and vaguely resentful about my body, but I'd never really asked myself the question, if I could have _any_ body, if I could choose my form out of the whole of human possibility, what would I choose? I looked down at myself, and I couldn't help but feel like I'd been preemptively presented with my own perfect answer.

It suddenly struck me that it was horribly unfair to have this revelation now, when I might never get to know what it felt like to live in a body that looked like this. This body image was taunting me with such a truth of self, too late to matter.

"Okay," I tried to say, but of course, my body was just an image. It couldn't make sound.

Okay. I couldn't feel or touch anything. I couldn't talk. What _could_ I do? I could move. I had a position in space and the ability to see and hear. I could float towards my house, pass through the front door, and look for my dad.

I found him in his home office, sitting back from his desk with his head in his hands. The website for a cemetery was open on his screen.

"Dad!" I tried to shout. "DAAAAD!"

Of course, I hadn't suddenly gained the ability to make sound, so that didn't work. Next I tried waving a hand through him, and through his keyboard. I tried it a bunch of different ways, visualizing my emotions channeled into a force, direct zen willpower, believing really hard that I was actually solid, and everything else I could think of.

None of it worked.

* * *

Our house has two floors, but it's built on a hill so the garage and the front door and the street all connect to the upper floor, while the lower floor opens on the back yard. The ground floor was all mine, set up like a small one-room apartment, but it was amazingly boring when I couldn't actually touch my computer, or my console, or anything else.

I didn't even reflect in the mirror. I _really_ wanted to know what I actually looked like now.

For the umpteenth time, I floated up through the ceiling to check on my dad, for lack of anything better to do. This time my dad had finally, finally fallen asleep, and I could try out the last obvious cliche.

I tried to dive into my dad's dreams.

Of course, all I accomplished was ending up under his bed. I tried a few more times, with the same result. I allowed myself to thrash around in abject frustration for a few minutes. This had no more effect than anything else I did, and it wasn't even very satisfying when I couldn't feel my limbs.

"Fuck," I moaned silently to myself. "I don't know what to do. There's got to be a way to do _something_. This doesn't make _sense_."

It really _didn't_ make sense. I didn't seem to be fading away, or getting tired, and I didn't feel drawn anywhere in particular. If this was just what happened to people who died, I should've seen another ghost by now, but I hadn't.

* * *

I was down in my room again, I don't know how much later, when a new awareness flared into my mind all at once. It was like I'd had one figurative eye closed this whole time and there, lurking in my blindspot, was this pattern of concepts, this novel structure of memories that weren't memories, all interconnected and layered.

Then _it_ rushed through me, emanating from the apexal nexus of the second conceptual layer and radiating down into my virtual body. _Mana_. It was the first thing I'd actually _felt_ since I died, and the sensation was an exquisite rush.

Finally, I had a sign that I might not be trapped in this numb existence forever. It had only been a day, but I'd had literally no way of interacting with anything. Now I did. With this new thing in my head came an intuitive understanding that it was meant to be _used_ , actively.

That didn't mean I automatically understood _how_. Of course not. That would be too easy.

There was a core to it, sort of, an underpinning of ten elemental primitives, and they were related to each other in ways that made me feel like if I understood one or two of them, I'd be able to guess at the rest. _Spellshards_.

Separately, on a higher conceptual layer, I found only one node, but nested within that node I found something I could only describe as a flowchart of those primitives. _Innate Spell_. And like a limb I'd forgotten I had, it was instantly obvious that I should've been able to fold that layer to bring that node into alignment with my mana nexus using my body and senses as a conduit.

Only I couldn't, because I didn't have a body. With that, I had to conclude that it was a separate thing unrelated to being a ghost... wait.

"...Mana. Spellshard. Innate Spell," I silently blurted. "I did not make up these terms and also holy fuck I have magic powers."

Magic was a thing! And I had it! Apparently!

Well, obviously. I was a disembodied spirit. I should've realized the implications the moment I woke up separately from my brain.

"...fuck, what if that rabbit thing wasn't a hallucination?" I wondered. "What did it say? Damn it, I can't remember."

I shut my eyes and tried, but I just couldn't recall the living plushy's words. But, I was pretty sure the thing _hadn't_ said anything about perpetual ghostliness.

What if there was a way to return to life?

I had one spell, called Planar Shield. I couldn't cast it, but I knew what it did, vaguely. Maybe that would be enough to figure out how to make a new one. It _felt_ like two of the spellshards in particular, which _weren't_ anywhere in Planar Shield, and were also related _like so_ to two _other_ spellshards which weren't in Planar Shield, were also related but differently to one particular spellshard which was in the same class as one which actually was part of Planar Shield.

It barely made sense to me, but I was sure I was on to something.

I had an intuitive sense for ways in which spellshards had things in common, and I had an intuitive sense of what each spellshard needed me to put _in_ before it would put anything _out_. From that starting point, I started experimenting.

I don't know how long it took me. I think the sun rose and set at least four times. I didn't get tired. I didn't get thirsty or hungry or sleepy.

I kept at it, hour after hour, because I was reasonably sure one of my spellshards in particular _literally conjured living flesh_. I played with that one exclusively until, with a surge of my mana, a one-inch sphere of homogeneous muscle tissue appeared behind my eyes and fell into the bathroom sink under me.

Fuck. Yes. This was going to be easier than I thought.

It still took me days of trying just to begin to understand how to link spellshards into a valid spell, though. Even then, my moment of triumph when a new spell clicked together for the first time was short lived, because casting it would've taken an order of magnitude more mana than I had available.

I did figure out why I couldn't cast Planar Shield, though. Several of its component spellshards took inertial values from the caster's body as inputs. Since I didn't have any physical properties, I couldn't use any of those spellshards, or a spell that depended on them.

I kept working, slowly getting a better sense of how my spellshards worked and interacted. Several times I thought I'd solved it, only to discover I didn't have enough mana to complete the spell. One of my failed attempts actually managed to turn me solid, like a glass statue made of force fields, but the moment I so much as twitched the spell's mana consumption tried to shoot up by several orders of magnitude beyond my capacity, and it shattered.

Ow.

I didn't want to try that again, but if all else failed maybe I could use it to get my dad's attention.

My next interesting failure actually began to generate flesh I could feel! It hurt like hell, and then my half-complete brain and spine fell out of the air as soon as it started forming. I went splat on the floor and woke up three hours later as a spirit again.

* * *

_April 25th, 2027_   
_Berkeley, California_   
_Aphron Residence_

I'd solved it.

It was the middle of the night, and I floated in front of my bathroom mirror, psyching myself up. The spell was _long_ , but it was elegantly recursive, which made it extremely mana efficient. And it didn't have the problem of needing to channel mana _through_ a body I didn't have. That had turned out to be the greatest constraint by a huge margin.

It took fifteen seconds to align the spell with my mana, and then I mouthed the incantation.

" _Perfect Incarnation!_ " is what my spell had named itself.

Brain tissue and skull formed in mid air, and I had an instant to revel in my success before the pain erupted across my every nerve. I was expecting it, but the creeping agony still consumed my whole existence for the long seconds it took my body to grow itself into being from the inside out.

When it was over, I let out an explosive agonized gasp as I started breathing again, and collapsed against the countertop. It worked. It actually worked.

"Yeah," I giggled breathlessly. My voice definitely belonged to a girl, now. "I'm immortal."

As the pain faded, _other_ sensations rose to the forefront of my awareness. All the little bits of awareness a body continually reported, which had been silent for days. Warmth, cold, breathing, air on my skin, gravity.

And then there were the things that were entirely new or different, like the weight of soft jiggly flesh anchored to my chest and the way that weight shifted and wobbled according to an inscrutable configuration of internal connective tissue. I was intensely aware of my up-thrust nipples in a way I'd never been before, as the rest of my breast-mass almost seemed to fulcrum around those sensitive points.

Likewise, I really wasn't used to feeling air on my entire nether region even with my legs closed tight. My inner thighs curved away from each other to meet my flared hips, leaving my crotch open and accessible.

A small part of me hadn't been able to shake the worry that once I could actually feel my new body, something would twig after all, some sense of wrongness or loss. But there was nothing like that, or if there was, it was completely overwhelmed by the gleeful _rush_ of being alive. I sucked in a slightly unsteady breath and finally pushed myself up, away from the sink, and looked at my reflection for the first time.

Oh.

Oh, wow.

The naked girl in the mirror was simultaneously alien and achingly familiar. Alien, because what I saw bore little to no resemblance to what I saw the last time I looked in a mirror, but at the same time, achingly _right_.

That was my face. Never mind that I'd never seen it before this moment. That was _me_. Me as I was meant to be. I touched my face, my full cute lips, then my luscious breasts, my tight toned stomach, the flare of my hips, and then inward to trace the pliable lips of my silky smooth vulva.

It was all real, and it was all me. Whatever doubts I might've had, that I was supposed to be a girl, evaporated.

I took another step back and examined my reflection more objectively. Even disheveled, I was gorgeous. Maybe a little on the broader, husky side as builds went, but ridiculously fit, with ideal proportions and even more ideal curves. My hair looked black, but it shaded to _green_ of all things where it caught the light just right, and it's short length was messy in a way that almost looked deliberate. I was flushed and sweaty from being in so much pain, earlier, but my creamy skin had no imperfections of any kind.

Maybe that should've been _especially_ disheveled, I was... hot. Sexy. Extremely, achingly fuckable. My body was a walking wet dream.

Given that my senses were already running on overdrive, compensating for weeks of numbness, what I did next was entirely predictable and entirely inevitable.

* * *

All the theoretical knowledge in the world couldn't begin to substitute for the first-hand experience of how much better masturbating was as a girl.

Firstly, _wet_. There were no words that could describe how slippery girl juice actually was, or how much better the liquid gliding friction felt than dry pressure. Also, _relative size_. I could create sensations on my clit with a pair of wet fingers that no combination of even two hands could replicate on the head of a penis. Around hour three in to learning my new body, when my pussy finally gave way to my knuckles and swallowed my hand to the wrist, I could only think that there was no way to get anything like that feeling by squeezing a cock.

The biggest difference, and the one that surprised me more than I'd liked to admit, was how much more pleasure I felt in the lead-up to cumming. As a boy, there hadn't been much pleasure at all until right before the point of no return. As a girl, I had to start biting back moans whole minutes before I climaxed.

I didn't know how much of that was being a girl, and how much was just my new body being more responsive and just generally _better_. It was the same kind of pleasure, just distributed over a shallower curve.

The _best_ part, by a wide margin, was my vagina's ability to _not_ pack up, go home, and refuse to play after each orgasm. If I didn't quit, neither did it. I knew _that_ wasn't universal even for girls, but I certainly hadn't had it as a boy.

Hour after hour slipped by as I explored the topology of my new form, the responses of my new flesh, and got familiar with the superhuman limits of my new body. With every orgasm I learned something more about being the girl I had become, until I was sure I knew my body well enough to know exactly how much of a gift I had been given.

* * *

As the sun rose, I thought about what I needed to do next. My dad would be awake soon, and he needed to know I was alive. I was less sure of how I was going to prove I was Cameron.

"Oh. Hey. My name's gender neutral. That's convenient."

Before long, I heard movement upstairs. I rolled to my feet and went into the bathroom to clean up. Weirdly, as far as I could tell, my sex juices had dried without leaving anything but clean skin, but I was at least going to wash my hands for form's sake if nothing else.

The sight of my reflection stopped me in my tracks. My hair looked the same as before, still a little wild, but no more tangled or mushed than it was hours ago. I looked clean. Groomed, even, compared to what I expected to look like after my all-night solo pleasure marathon.

Sniff. I _smelled_ clean.

What the fuck.

"This has to be another magic thing, right?" I asked my reflection.

And that was when I abruptly realized that it was weird that I even _had_ any hair on my scalp. My body was only a few hours old. It was difficult enough to get Perfect Incarnation to include _bones_. I hadn't even tried to include hair.

Clearly, something else was going on.

Before I could contemplate the mystery any more than that, I heard more movement from upstairs. My dad was definitely awake. I owed it to him not to put off telling him I was alive, no matter how awkward it was going to be.

I went to my dresser and quickly dug out my largest t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. As was my habit, I kicked the drawer closed. A second too late, I realized what I'd done and tried to catch it, but I wasn't fast enough. It slammed in, loudly.

The sounds from upstairs stopped, and then I heard footsteps on the stairs down to my room. Wincing, I stepped into the boxers and pulled the t-shirt over my head. My door burst open and my dad staggered inside, looking like eight rings of hell. He saw me and blinked, confused.

"Excuse me, but what the hell are you doing in my son's room?" he wondered.

I flinched. "Dad, it's me, Cameron."

Silence.

"That is _not funny_ ," he snarled, suddenly angry.

"Dad, I _came back to life_. I look different but it's me. I'm Cameron," I insisted. "I died when Dreya knocked the ladder over and I fell, and then I was like this. I don't know what..."

"Don't, don't you... how did you know... we didn't tell anyone she..." He abruptly shut his eyes and twitched, like he had a sudden headache, then he glared at me. "Listen young lady, I don't care what game you think you're playing. My _son_. Is _dead_. And you, you _insensitive bitch_ , are going to explain yourself right now or I'm going to call the police."

I felt myself slipping into the cold ruthlessness I used to deal with assholes at school and forced myself to remember that this wasn't my dad's fault. The way he was behaving was completely reasonable, from his perspective. Treating him like an enemy was not going to help.

"I can prove I'm Cameron," I said levelly. "Ask me anything."

In the next moment my dad grabbed my arm and was hauling me towards the back window. He flung the curtain aside, hauled open the sliding glass door, and shoved me out into the back yard.

"Enough! Enough of this sick excuse for a joke!" he shouted at me.

I stumbled, cold grass prickling my bare feet, and backed away a little. This was ridiculous. He had to let me at least _try_ to convince him, but no, he just rejected the premise out of hand.

"Dad! Listen! I know it's impossible, okay? I didn't think this could happen in real life either! But it did! I can prove it if you'll just give me a fucking chance!" My voice broke a little. I wasn't crying, but I kind of wanted to. Cameron Aphron's life wasn't much but it was _mine_.

My dad stood on the patio step, breathing hard. "What the hell do you think could possibly convince me?"

"I can prove magic exists," I blurted, relieved, and began the fifteen-second process of aligning a spell. "If I demonstrate credible magic, you have to at least _listen_. I came back from the dead and I can show you how I did it."

"You're insane," my dad said hollowly, turning away.

"No," I disagreed, and aimed my spell at the space in front of him. " _Planar Shield_."

The shield formed at a point in front of my dad and unfurled to a diameter of three feet in less than an eyeblink. Like shimmering glass or a vivid hologram, a rippling false-motion of faintly glowing concentric hexagons hung vertical in the air and blocked the way inside. It made a nearly silent and nearly subsonic hum. My dad walked into it and bounced backwards, and I felt only the tiniest pull on my mana.

He turned around, breathing hard. "What the hell do you think could possibly convince me?"

Wait, what? I felt a chill go down my spine.

I pointed at the hexagonal shield. "That! The magic shield you just walked right into!"

My dad turned to look, saw the floating hexagon, and twitched. He looked at me again, same as the first time. "What the hell do you think could possibly convince me?"

That chill was now a full case of creeping horrors. He'd repeated himself exactly, down to the last inflection, and I had no idea what the fuck was wrong with him or what to do about it except repeat myself again.

My spell finished aligning again, and I cast a second, " _Planar Shield_ ," horizontally two feet above the ground. I stepped up onto it, using it as a hovering platform. "I. Am. Cameron. I have magic and used it to resurrect myself."

My dad's eyes glazed over and his face went slack. For a moment, I had hope that it'd finally sunk in, but then he started twitching. His eyes rolled up, the twitching turned into an actual _seizure_ , and he started _foaming_. He collapsed before I even understood what I was seeing.

My shields evaporated and I dropped to the grass. "Dad!"

He stopped shaking. I threw myself down and turned him onto his side, barely noticing how light he felt, but he wasn't moving anymore. He wasn't even twitching. I stared at him, numb, as he lay there.

A girlish scream startled me out of my fugue. "Oh my god what the shit who are you did you kill my dad oh my god!"

I looked up to see Andreya fleeing back up the stairs, phone in hand. Great, first my sister kills me, then she accuses me of murder. I looked down again. My dad still wasn't moving.

I got one of those horrible sinking feelings as I aligned a spell. I wasn't going to be able to explain this. I wasn't going to be able to get anyone to believe me. If someone like me had magic, then magic had to be pretty common. If magic was pretty common, then there had to be a reason no one knew about it. I'd tried to tell my dad, and he'd started acting weird and then he'd had a seizure.

I couldn't help but see the connection.

Fifteen seconds passed, and I cast, " _Perfect Incarnation_ ," on my dad. I didn't know if it'd help with a seizure, but I was pretty sure it couldn't make things worse. The spell was obviously doing _something_. I watched as decades of aging melted off of him, and hoped he didn't have another seizure when he looked in the mirror and remembered that we were too poor to afford rejuvenation therapy.

I stopped, breaking the spell. Fuck. That could actually happen, couldn't it.

My sister was probably calling the police. I literally couldn't tell them the truth, and I didn't have a plausible lie. That sinking feeling hit bottom, and I knew what had to happen next.

I got up and dashed back inside. I snatched up my backpack and stuffed a change of clothes into the main pouch along with my tablet. I also unplugged all of my portable drives and stuck them in the side pouch with my wallet.

My shoes didn't fit anymore. Neither did any of my pants. "Fuck."

The sound of a siren echoed faintly in the distance. Gritting my teeth, I swung my backpack on and ran outside in just my socks. I scrambled up the hill into the front yard and kept running, my feet slapping on the concrete.

* * *

_April 26th, 2027_   
_San Francisco, California_   
_Portsmouth Square Plaza_

I was in San Francisco. I had no idea how that happened.

I'd made it out of my neighborhood and onto busier streets where I'd had to slow down and walk, but after that I'd been at a loss for what to do next.

So I kept walking.

After a few hours I had to use Perfect Incarnation to turn the balls of pain at the ends of my legs back into feet, but that worked fine. If I kept the spell going it fixed general tiredness too.

I still got sleepy, but even walking all night in a daze, I was pretty sure I wasn't even going in the right direction to end up in San Francisco the next morning. And yet.

And then, as I crossed in front of a park, I almost bumped into a girl in a school uniform who had transparent flesh, like like green jello. She caught me staring, and before I could react she let out a tiny scream and bolted at a dead run. There were lots of people around, but no one else seemed to notice anything odd about her.

"What."

It had to be the thing that struck down my dad. That was the only thing that made sense. Magic hid itself. Like a selective weirdness censor pressing down on the minds of the entire human race.

It stole my home from me and it might have killed my dad.

I found an out-of-the-way bench and sat down under a shady tree, holding my backpack on my lap. I'd gotten some weird looks for being a lone girl dressed in nothing but a loose t-shirt, boxer shorts, and socks, so it was probably a bad idea to stay in one spot too long, but I... needed a moment.

Or maybe, like, several hours. No one bothered me, anyway.

After a while, I wondered if it would be a horrible idea to use an ATM, assuming my debit card still worked. On paper, I was dead, not to mention male. It wasn't possible for me to abide by the law, but I could still aim for _uninteresting_ to the law, relatively speaking.

My body ached from sitting on a hard surface for most of the morning. I healed away the aches again, but a few minutes later I got up anyway. I sipped from a nearby drinking fountain, picked a direction at random, and walked.

Several blocks away, I was waiting for the walk light on a street corner when I happened to glance up and catch sight of a flying figure in the distance. There was a girl in a red evening gown flying gracefully between skyscrapers, not even trying to hide. How cool was that. It made me feel better, weirdly. The magicals were hidden, but they weren't hiding.

While I was thinking about that, these two guys snuck up on me. "Hey, gorgeous. Are you doing alright?"

I flinched, startled. Forcing down the unwarranted surge of adrenaline, I took a breath and glanced over the guy who'd spoken. Black hair, blue eyes, clean shaven. Tall, but kind of scrawny, and dressed in jeans with a leather jacket. His friend was a little shorter, relatively swarthy and muscular, with a thin chin-strap beard, and dressed a little more colorfully in tan pants and a button shirt with flames on it.

Both of them openly checked me out, roaming over my protruding bust and bare legs with their gaze. The sun was behind me. They could probably see the outline of my body through the fabric of my shirt. The tall pretty dude actually looked kind of concerned, but there was nothing subtle about the excited way their eyes raked over my form.

At first, my brain simply failed to produce a reaction. This kind of attention was so far outside my usual experience that I simply didn't have a stored response. It felt... good, though. My body seemed to like it. I felt my nipples harden against the fabric of my shirt and a flush spread out over my skin from between my legs.

"Yeah, what's your hurry, gorgeous? You got somewhere to be?" Flame shirt gestured at my shoeless feet.

"Sheesh, Darrek, you sound like a back-alley thug," the first guy said, rolling his eyes. "You're gonna scare her off."

Wait what? Scare me off? I snorted. Then, I laughed outright. Random horny dudes were, realistically, the last thing that would scare me off. After everything that I'd lost, it was actually a relief to encounter something so mundane and straightforwardly harmless.

"Bwuh? What's she...? What're you laughing at?" tall pretty dude wondered, sounding confused.

I shook my head. "Sorry, but you would not _believe_ the week I've had, and you guys, just being all..." I waved a hand. "Thank you."

The so-called Darrek shrugged. "You're welcome? Y'know, you've got a smile that lights up that whore face of yours. Anybody ever tell you that?"

I stared for a moment, wondering if I'd misheard, before descending back into helpless laughter, "...no? I'm pretty sure I'd remember a comment like that!"

Judging by the way tall pretty dude smacked his forehead into his hand, I hadn't misheard. "Darrek, why do I even let you talk."

"...whole," Darrek said to me. "I definitely meant to say 'whole'. I'm so sorry."

I giggled, shoulders shaking. It was hard to pin down exactly why I found that so delightfully funny, but I did. The light changed. I waited to see if they were going to cross. They stayed put, so I did too.

"Yeah. Sorry about him," tall pretty dude said.

I shrugged.

"Anyway, my name's Martin Grey," tall pretty dude introduced himself. "This is Darrek Estan. Maybe we can help you out."

"There we were," Darrek said, making a dramatic sweeping gesture, "when we saw this _knockout babe_ walking around with no shoes, dressed in rags, looking ever so tragically adrift. And we thought, a girl like you might appreciate it if along came a new opportunity."

"What kind of opportunity?" I asked neutrally, a little wary now that it sounded like this was more complicated than just these two guys hitting on me.

"A totally legal one," Martin put in helpfully. Which was less of a selling point than I might have liked, given my circumstances. "Assuming you're over eighteen?"

"...nineteen this august," I told them.

"Right," Darrek agreed. "We make an honest living, and I bet a girl with your attributes could be making _bank_ with us, you work it right."

"Um."

"I'm sorry, I know we're coming out of nowhere with this," Martin broke in seamlessly. "You're obviously having a rough time, you're probably hungry. Tell you what, there's a nice little outdoor bistro just down the way there. Let's go buy you some dinner, sound good? All you have to do is promise to hear us out and keep an open mind, and you can have anything off the menu you want. Deal?"

I glanced in the indicated direction. "You pay, I listen, that's all you want?"

"That's all," Martin agreed. "Promise."

"Then sure, let's go," I said. "And thanks."

"Pleasure's ours!" Darrek asserted.

The restaurant was right where Martin said. It was a tiny place with round metal tables and chairs out front in a little fenced and covered area, with the majority of its interior space occupied by kitchen. I ordered a chicken sandwich.

Seated at one of the little round tables with my meal in front of me and the two guys across from me, I took a bite and moaned rapturously. My healing spell made up for a lot, but it didn't change the fact that my body had _never eaten before_.

Martin and Darrek stared at me like DPSers at an orange loot drop. I carefully chewed my next bite _without_ any moaning, swallowed, and raised an expectant eyebrow.

"So!" Darrek leaned forward and rubbed his hands together. "Tell me. What're your feelings on porn?"

I stopped. Oh. _Oh_... That made sense.

"It... is often unfairly singled out?" I offered. "I mean, it's porn. Rule thirty-four. My feelings on porn are mostly positive."

"Good to hear," Martin said, nodding. "Unfairly singled out?"

"Uh," I said. "Yeah, it's like, there's this divide. Legitimate media can be as sexually explicit as it wants to be so long as it doesn't _actually_ try to arouse you. But then when the _point_ is to get your viewers off, its like your value is still only measured along every axis _except_ how effective you are at making your audience cum. And that is just unfair."

"Good answer," Martin laughed. "Like, really good, actually. That was deep."

"What he said. I like you, babe," Darrek said, grinning. "So me and Martin, we run a small site called _Lewd & Clued_ 'cause we're clued in on the best ways to get lewd, get it?"

"Cute," I opined. "I don't think I've heard of you, though. Sorry."

Darrek sighed. "Our marketing kind of sucks. And that's my fault. Shouldn't've been lazy about the watermark."

"But we do operate out of our own studio and everything," Martin told me. "It's a clean set, and we always stay up on the industry standards for keeping it that way. It's safer than _dating_ , really."

"A girl built like you, y'know, all the right curves, fantastic ass, and natural tits big enough to kill a man? Throw in the _thoroughly_ promising attitude and you could enjoy some very comfortable job security," Darrek said. "I'll ballpark four hundred dollars a shoot, and that's just for vanilla sex. If you'll do anal, group sex, or girl-on-girl, you could make as much as twice that."

"What if I prefer girls?" I asked impishly.

Darrek blinked. "You're gay?"

I shook my head. "Pan. I'm pretty sure I'm pansexual. But."

"Well _that's_ a lucky break if ever there was one," Darrek declared happily. "I tell ya, it must've been fate, running into you."

"We dabble in some kinky stuff too," Martin added. "Usually just the more elaborate forms of bondage or the occasional fetish-fantasy role-play, but it depends on what and who we've got to work with. Some of those pay just as much even for solo scenes, but, you can always say no to anything you're not comfortable with."

I took another bite of my sandwich and swallowed it before I brought up my primary concern. "Um, you know I don't have any, like, ID, or documents, or like, anything to prove legally that I exist? Everything I had is gone..."

Martin looked to Darrek. Darrek stroked his chin.

"That's potentially a problem," Darrek admitted. "We are gonna need a proof-of-age of some kind for our records, but the work itself is paid as freelance. As long as you can get us something with a birthdate on it, we're good to go on our end. All you need to worry about is deciding if this is an opportunity you're interested in seizing."

I ate another bite of my chicken sandwich and thought about it. In a way, it was perfect. Me, in front of the camera instead of behind it, but I'd be having sex in clearly defined, controlled circumstances, with people who would necessarily have pragmatic and sensible views about sexual activity. And the world would be just that little bit better for having more porn in it.

"It sounds _great_ , actually. I'm kind of a sexuality nerd _and_ a film geek so this really does appeal," I explained, and I should've stopped there, because the next part was _sure_ to be taken wrong, "but, I don't know if I'm qualified to, I mean, I'm, I've never actually, had sex, before."

Martin and Darrek were both clearly surprised to hear that. They exchanged a look and Darrek shrugged.

"Is that a problem? I don't think that's a problem," Darrek said. "We can work with that, right?"

"Well," Martin began slowly as he faced me. "Um, we definitely don't want to pressure you into anything you're not ready for, or make you feel like we're, y'know, asking you give up a normal first time..."

I held up my hands in front of me to stop him. "No, no! I'm totally ready for it. I'm not, I'd be fine with, I haven't been, saving myself, or anything like that. I'm not a prude! I'm just an introvert!"

"Oh," Martin said, relaxing into an awkward smile. "Okay. I, um, promise I didn't mean to call you a prude."

"I get it. It's fine," I said. "I'm really really not attached to my virginity and I honestly don't give a fuck if my first time is _special_."

Darrek grinned at me, and I returned it sheepishly. "Ooh, you're going to be fun, aren't you."

I laughed a little, and shrugged.

"So, should I take that to mean you do want to work with us?" Martin asked.

"If my lack of prior experience isn't an issue, then, yeah. Yes," I agreed. "I was really lucky to run into you have no idea."

"The feeling's mutual, babe," Darrek said. "You got something we can call you?"

Martin blinked, and winced. "Right. Almost forgot to ask you for a name. That would've been embarrassing."

"Cameron," I told them, smiling. "Cameron Aphron."

"Nice to meet you, Cameron," Martin said wryly, holding out his hand.

I shook it, savoring the shock of skin contact. A frisson of warmth spiked up my arm and prickled its way down my spine. I was seriously set to Easy mode, and it was hard to imagine that I even had a Bad Touch setting.

"Hey, so," Martin spoke up. "I don't mean to pry, but I'm guessing you don't have anywhere to stay tonight."

"Oh, right," Darrek said with a snap of his fingers.

"No, I don't have anywhere to stay," I admitted.

"Okay," Darrek said. "You got some options, I think. I could dole out an advance to get you checked into a hotel for the night, you pay it back later. Or, you can use my phone to look up a shelter, and we part ways 'till you show up at the studio. On the other hand, maybe, if you're willing to trust us this far, we live on the floor below our studio and we've got a comfy couch, you can crash with us, no problem, no strings."

"Okay," I said. The hopeful look Martin got on his face for staying with them actually addressed my primary concern with that option, which was otherwise the most appealing. "Honestly, I prefer option three."

"Awesome and cool, you won't regret a thing, solemn promise," Darrek said.

Martin smiled at me. "Yes, thank you. I think this'll work out. It'll be more time to talk about the particulars and make sure nothing blindsides you."

"Getting blindsided is not my favorite thing," I agreed wryly. "So, where is your building?"

* * *

_April 26th, 2027_   
_San Francisco, California_   
_The Apartment_

Martin and Darrek had an entire floor of the building to themselves. It wasn't as impressive as it sounded. It was a pretty small building. Still, the place was pretty cozy and there was plenty of room for a pair of roommates.

Each had a bedroom to himself, with a surprisingly spacious shared bathroom off the common area. The common area had a kitchen opposite the bathroom, and a rather impressive entertainment center taking up the remaining wall space. A black leather couch sat between a pair of cushy armchairs in front of the wall-mounted screen.

In the bathroom, I shut the door and swung my backpack off. I set it on the counter with a sigh. I didn't really need a shower, but I wanted one, to ground myself.

I also needed the privacy to rearrange the contents of my backpack. I pulled my wallet out of the side pouch, and went through it. Everything I had that showed my age also had that accursed 'M' on it. A small part of me was still clinging to the hope that maybe somehow I could reattach myself, legally, to the identity, but I didn't have the first clue how.

Sighing, I stuffed my wallet into the very bottom of my backpack's main pouch, and went to turn the shower on.

It was one of those showers that didn't have a tub, just a big square area enclosed by glass. There were two clearly separate sets of everything, from towels to shampoo. I didn't want to disturb their stuff too much, so I went looking and found an extra towel under the sink.

I stripped off my baggy t-shirt and admired myself in the mirror. A stupid little grin came onto my face. It really was the body I would've designed for myself, if I could've. I peeled my socks off next, and grimaced. They were filthy and the soles were worn all the way through. I threw them in the trash.

The bottoms of my feet were clean.

Well, okay. That was pretty much proof positive that I had some kind of magic passively affecting me. I had magical hygiene. Awesome. I tossed my boxers on top of my shirt and admired my nude reflection for another moment before I stepped under the hot water and let it stream over my face.

Since I didn't actually need to wash, I was probably only in there for ten minutes or so. Just long enough to let the heat relax me. I shut the water off and grabbed my borrowed towel to dry my hair. I saw my hair fall perfectly into its haphazard style all on its own, and nodded at the further confirmation. Being magic was a pretty sweet deal.

I looked at my shirt and boxers, and made a face. I really needed some actual clothes. Clothes that fit me.

As soon as I dwelled on that, a new module of my magic shifted to the front of my mind. Not a spell, and not part of my spellshard layer at all, but something separate and self-contained. It had two parts to it, one of which...

It was the passive grooming effect. And the _other_ part could be used actively. I focused on it, and it didn't even need to align the way my spells did. It barely even touched my mana.

Three seconds later, my reflection stared back at me, dressed in a tight black crop top with a short pleated skirt and fishnet stockings, all perfectly fitted and way more stylish than I could've dreamed up. The conjured fabric felt weird on my chest for a moment until it finished moving my breasts up and together into place. I felt it slither under my feet as shoes formed between me and the floor.

I tugged at the edge of my new skirt. It was really there, not an illusion, but it tore at the slightest pull. As soon as I let go, the edges of the rip came together like magnets and the tear repaired itself, but only because I was keeping the magic active. Maybe it _was_ a tactile illusion. There was no way a real material that fragile could possibly hold my breasts up to the point that I couldn't even see over my cleavage.

So. I could also magically clothe myself. I was a little annoyed that I apparently could've done that the whole time, and didn't know about it, but then maybe Martin and Darrek wouldn't have talked to me, so maybe I was a little glad too.

I sighed. I might've been able to claim I had extra clothes and shoes in my backpack, but I didn't have an explanation for why I wasn't wearing them before. I supposed I could probably get away with refusing to explain.

Instead, I relaxed the magic.

My shoes instantly crunched into mist under my feet and my breasts burst explosively out of my top, scattering shreds of fake fabric. Note to self, get that on camera at some point, that was hot. I tore the rest of it off, feeling barely a whisper of resistance, and watched it mist away into nothing.

Naked again, I faced the door and picked up my backpack. I needed to be comfortable with nudity anyway. It felt wrong _not_ to be, whether I was going to be doing porn or not, and this would be good practice.

I grabbed my towel as I stepped out of the bathroom, but I didn't cover myself with it. Darrek saw me first, looking up from his phone from the further armchair. His eyes widened and he let out a low whistle. Martin was holding an armful of blankets with a pillow on top, and he looked over at Darrek's whistle.

"Wow," Martin whispered. "Uh, hi. Do you need something to wear? I'm sure we can find something."

"That'd be great, but it can wait," I said. "I figure I should get used to this. You guys are probably going to be seeing me naked a lot, so..."

Martin chuckled and dropped the stack of blankets on the leather couch. "Well, as long as you're comfortable."

"Nnf," Darrek grunted, shaking his head and grinning. "I haven't been this tempted to break protocol in a long time."

Martin rolled his eyes, busy arranging blankets. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Darrek."

"Protocol?" I asked.

"We're fluid bonded with most of our models," Martin explained. "Which means _no fluid contact at all_ before we get you screened, because it's not just our personal health on the line."

I nodded. "I figured there'd be something like that."

"Yep," Martin agreed, "but I was actually chiding Darrek for neglecting the part where you _ask the girl for permission_ before you stick your dick in her."

I giggled at the affronted look on Darrek's face. But, Martin was underestimating me if he still thought I was going to balk like a virgin. Nevermind that I actually was a virgin.

"As if! The question is totally implied," Darrek insisted. "Right, sweetheart? You're not afraid to speak up if there's something you don't want."

I tried for a bland look, but I couldn't keep the amusement out of my tone. "I'm not super subtle."

Darrek laughed. "Fair, fair. Seriously though, inquiring boners want to know, who do you want to fuck more, me or him?"

I glanced between Darrek and Martin, wondering how I was supposed to answer that. "Um..."

"Ignore him," Martin told me, as he tossed the pillow against the armrest and straightened up. "You don't have to decide anything or do anything tonight, okay? Just relax and get your bearings. We can talk about all of it tomorrow."

"Okay," I told him, even though I'd been about to suggest they rock-paper-scissors for it. Dropping my backpack, I tossed my towel over the backrest and took a seat on the blanket-covered couch.

"How's the couch?" Martin asked. "Comfy?"

It was. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Cool."

For the next little while, I did my best to relax with Martin and Darrek's eyes constantly returning to my nude body. My senses still felt heightened, and I was acutely aware of every inch of bare skin I had on display, waiting to be touched. I had no intention of pushing them on their rules. It was good they were being responsible. But it made it easier that I was so tired.

With one last long glance at me, Martin retreated to his room. "Need to start editing Zoey's scene from yesterday. Don't wait up."

"Night!" Darrek called.

I yawned and wiggled a little deeper into the cushions. Darrek tapped at his phone, glancing up at me every so often. I kind of felt like preening, and spread my legs wider to give him a better view of my plump hairless vulva. Laying my head back, I closed my eyes and played with my boobs a little. The tapping sounds slowed down and got further apart.

At some point, the balance tipped from arousing to relaxing, and I started nodding off. Yawning, I twisted lengthwise on the couch and pulled a blanket over myself, snuggling down into the pillow. Darrek chuckled distantly as sleep claimed me.


	2. CAMERON

_April 27th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I awoke in darkness to the sound of an anguished male scream. At first I wasn't sure if it _could've_ been a sound of pleasure, but sensibly assumed that it was audio from the scene Martin was working on.

Over the next few moments, I slowly realized just how late it was, and that the rhythmic noises coming through the wall didn't sound like they were coming from a set of speakers.

Even as I thought it probably wasn't any of my business, I kicked the blanket off and sprang to my feet, as awake and alert as I'd ever been. Some unexplained but powerful urge drove me to investigate, and my magic was even more glaringly present in my mind than usual.

Martin's door wasn't locked. Still naked, I turned the knob and cracked it open an inch, peering through the gap.

There was a woman, straddling Martin in his bed, with one hand clamped down over his mouth. I could see Martin's cock, hard and veiny, plunging deep into the woman's pussy as she twerked her ass up and down with enviable skill. More importantly, she had big leathery wings, curling horns, and candy-red skin.

Maybe it was unfair, but my mind immediately leaped to 'succubus' as a label for her. For all I knew there really were succubi and they were something completely different, but for now it fit.

Martin trembled and thrashed in obvious ecstatic orgasmic pleasure, but it went on and on as I watched, lasting far longer than was plausible, and it only seemed to be getting more intense with every passing moment. His skin was flushed and drenched in sweat, with his hair plastered to his forehead and his breath came in desperate short gasps. That didn't look natural, and it didn't look or sound healthy either.

"Mmm, oh? Is that all?" the woman cooed, despite Martin continuing to convulse. "C'mon, give me just a little more cum."

I started aligning a Planar Shield and snapped the door open. "I think he wants you to stop."

The nude succubus jolted, popping off Martin's cock and wafting weightlessly in the air as she spun around, startled. I don't think Martin even noticed. He spasmed more violently than ever, his cock standing rigid and alarmingly purple from his crotch. He was still cumming, but with nothing left to ejaculate it looked like he was in nearly as much pain as pleasure.

"What the fuck are you supposed to be?" the succubus blurted, then she swooped back onto Martin's thrashing body. "This is my prey! Back off!"

"You back off," I retorted less than creatively.

I slid forward into a stance—right foot out, left foot in, pivot off the step to feint—and hurtled my body over the corner of Martin's bed in a noticeably shaky spinning side kick that still managed to connect with the succubus' neck and smash her head into the wall.

And through the wall. She passed right through the wall like it wasn't there and tumbled out into the common area. At least my horribly rusty martial arts skills hadn't completely failed me. I didn't think I'd actually performed that move since I was twelve.

"Gaahrrrrh!" the succubus snarled, spinning to face me as I ducked through the door. To my moderate surprise, she tensed up for a moment, grunting, and a thick meaty phallus splurted out of her crotch, bobbling in the air, wet and erect. "For that, I'm gonna rape you so hard they'll be picking bits of fetus out of your teeth!"

I didn't have time to think about how that threat could possibly work. She dove at me and I leaped straight up, catching her horns and vaulting over her back. I spun, skipping back a couple steps to buy the last half a second I needed, and...

" _Planar Shield!_ "

...my spell finished aligning. I planted the hexagonal shield edge-on directly in front of the charging succubus, coldly expecting the infinitely thin edge to slice her in half. She yelped in surprise, but when she slammed into the edge of my shield it was the shield that shattered. The impact sent the succubus tumbling, but I barely saw it through the ripping pain that lanced through my mind.

"Agh!" she screamed, crashing very solidly to the floor in a heap. She stared up at me in horror. " _Another_ fucking magical girl?! Augh! You bitches are _everywhere_. Fuck this!"

The succubus abruptly sank through the floor, and vanished. Rather than try to follow her downstairs, I dashed from window to window, trying to catch a glimpse of which direction she might've gone.

Not for revenge. I wanted _answers_. "A magical girl?"

I spotted movement outside. The succubus was there, flying in an unsteady path towards the Transamerica Pyramid, and I made sure to burn the spot where she ducked out of sight into my brain. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

I turned away and hurried back into Martin's room. I found him in the same state, convulsing as his swollen penis throbbed and pulsed in continuing dry orgasm.

I needed to know _what was wrong_ with him, and then I abruptly realized I that I already did. I could sense anything about his body I wanted to, down to the last detail if I concentrated. A venom burned through his nerve tissue, and it was like half his autonomic nervous system had been shut off, leaving the other half completely unchecked. I saw it in my mind's eye, more clearly than my own thoughts.

I couldn't look at the venom at the same time I looked at his nerves, for some reason. I had to mentally switch back and forth. Using these senses cost mana, too, but thankfully not very much of it. A few seconds of Perfect Incarnation would undo the damage, but the venom would still be in his system.

That was a much simpler problem, though, and my solution didn't have to be efficient. The spellshard that conjured flesh had an opposite. I linked that one through the one that detected the venom and looped the operation back through the one that was only loosely related but which I suspected was an anti-magic.

It clicked together as a valid spell.

I wasted no time and started aligning it the second it produced a name for itself. Seconds ticked by while Martin slowly orgasmed himself to death, and I couldn't help but think that this was not how my powers were meant to be used and that I had to be missing something fundamental, because fifteen seconds was an _eternity_ under pressure. My entire fight with the succubus had taken less time than that.

Finally, it aligned and I incanted, " _Poison Purge!_ "

Almost immediately, Martin went limp and his throbbing erection withered. His nervous system regained its equilibrium more slowly, but it got there without killing him. I healed him the rest of the way and drew the sheet up over his lower body.

I left him be and closed his door behind me. My shield spell wasn't a viable cutting weapon. That was disappointing. The fight had knocked a few things over and made a small mess, but nothing I couldn't clean up by myself.

Magical Girl.

The succubus had called me that like it was a proper term, not just a description. She hadn't just recognized magic itself, she'd recognized what I was. I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but 'magical girl' was promising. I needed to know, and that succubus was my best lead.

I finished cleaning up, and left my backpack on the couch so it'd be obvious I intended to return if Martin or Darrek woke up before I got back.

* * *

The night air was brisk as I stepped out onto the sidewalk, wearing my slutty goth illusion outfit. Stepping back to the curb, I assessed the face of the five-story building.

The fight with the succubus should _not_ have gone that well. I'd had martial arts lessons as kid, yes, but if I'd been in that fight with my old body, I'd have lost. Badly.

I knew my current body was in much better shape than my old one, but that alone wouldn't account for that much of an advantage. I didn't actually know how much strength, or speed, or grace I now had, but it was clearly more than I'd realized.

"Okay," I breathed. "Let's find out."

From a standing start, I burst into motion. I raced straight at a patch of empty wall and leaped. One foot against the wall, deflect my momentum upwards, other foot, two steps, three steps, four steps, _reach_.

I caught my weight on my fingertips, hanging easily from the bottom of a window. I glanced over, and let out a strangled giggle. I'd aimed for a second-story window. I was currently dangling from a _third_ -story window.

Laughing, I planted my feet against the wall, dug my fingers in, and threw myself ten feet straight up to the next window. I did it again, then again and reached the roof, swinging myself over the lip without touching it with any part of my body except my hands.

I rose from a crouch and peered over the edge in amazement. The path I'd just traversed was _maybe_ humanly possible. _Maybe_. But not for someone with my voluptuous build and definitely not for someone who'd had a grand total of three hours parkour experience.

"Damn," I said, letting myself grin.

I'd passed the _technical_ test of superhuman ability. Of course, the _cool_ test of superhuman ability was harder. Making it to the roof was one thing. If I could _travel_ by rooftop, that would be so much cooler.

To the south, the skyscrapers of downtown cut up past the horizon, looming in the distance beyond a sea of close-packed blocky buildings. It was mostly a mix of three-story and four-story buildings, with the occasional five-story and one ten-story sticking out like a sore thumb.

I glanced down into my cleavage. Well, I'd gotten this far without smacking myself down with my own breasts. I took a breath to steady myself, and broke into a run. I jiggled. I jiggled a lot, but somehow, it was like the elasticity of the connective tissue in my breasts had been tuned into perfect anti-resonance with the cadence of my body, so it all canceled out and left me stable and comfortable.

That was so cheating, but I wasn't going to complain.

I ducked low and vaulted over the edge. I braced, but the impact with the next roof one story down barely strained my legs. Grinning, with the roar of wind in my ears, I raced to the corner of that roof and leaped, sailing over a smaller two-story block to land on the third-story roof beyond it.

When I reached the end of the city block, I stopped and looked back. The cool test: also passed. Fuck. Yes.

* * *

I walked along at the base of the Transamerica Pyramid, trying to look like I hadn't already circled the entire block three times. It was the middle of the night, but the streets were nowhere near deserted.

At least I looked like a young woman out for a night on the town, instead of like a homeless teen. It was impressive, how much of a difference that made in the way people looked at me. I'd lost count of how many times I'd felt like some guy was glaring at me, only to look and catch the guy ogling my ass or something.

It thrilled me.

I was tempted to stop and flirt, and I might have if I'd had more than two-sevenths of a clue how to do that without looking like an idiot. Besides, I was on a mission.

Finally, halfway through my fourth lap, I saw something promising. A figure emerged from between this pair of large, squat concrete cylinders with slanted, vented tops. The figure was a man, ordinary, dressed in shirt and tie, with a little girl riding on his shoulders. The little girl wore an elaborate blue and silver dress, and as I pretended not to watch, a set of glittery dragonfly wings sprouted from her back in a shower of sparkles.

The little girl laughed at something the man said, and leaned down to plant a childish, upside-down kiss on the man's forehead. He patted her head and then he took hold of her feet. The girl stood as he threw her upwards, her wings thrummed, and the little girl streaked away into the night sky.

A few moments later, the man turned and... walked in a circle? He walked, turning left until he came back to where he started. I was close enough to the gap between the concrete cylinders to see him clearly, by now. At the point where he completed a full circle, he vanished into thin air, like he'd stepped behind an invisible wall.

I dashed around a tree and vaulted the little waist-high fence, but he was gone. There wasn't any invisible wall or doorway, but... there was this feeling. An odd instinct telling me that the world here was thicker than normal, somehow.

I looked at the ground, and saw a pair of concentric grooves forming a ring in the concrete. Alright. This was just, obviously a magical secret passage. Even if the succubus didn't go this way, I might get some answers if I followed it.

"Fuck it."

I stepped to where I saw the man vanish, and started walking leftwise around the circle. There was an odd resistance, like I was moving something more than just my own body with each step I took. And it was _familiar_. I'd felt this before, when I got lost in Berkeley.

As I came back to my starting point, a slit in reality itself opened in front of me, emerging from behind the boundary of the inner circle, like it had been there the whole time, just out of view.

I stepped through, into Escher's fever dream.

It was a bustling city. It was a hall of mirrors. It was a patchwork kaleidoscope of building faces, shop fronts, and pavement folded at every conceivable right angle. I stood on a street corner, but it was the corner of a _cube_ hanging in day-lit space. If I looked one way, I was on the outside of the cube, but if I looked the other way, I was on the inside of the _same cube_ , missing three of its faces. Bridges connected my corner to other cubes, patchwork city blocks built for gravity in any of six directions.

It had to be an illusion, forced perspective, only it wasn't. Figures in colorful attire flew and darted through the air, traveling across the whole scene in unbroken arcs, proving its physical veracity. The light of an overcast sky filtered in from every direction, seeming to have no source, since the city seemed to go on in every direction forever.

"I know that look," said a girl's voice, amused but warm. "The brain maps perspective by parallax, requiring a stable region of flat spacetime to produce accurate spatial relationships. Tetra-axial fold patterns embedded in a closed five-dimensional loop confuse the hindbrain and can't be reconciled with the ancestral environment."

I blinked and turned to look at the girl who was speaking. She was a little taller than me, but slender, with a kind of lithe dancer's grace to her even just standing there. Her skin was pale, she had long shiny black hair, and violet eyes. Layered strips of some sheer purple cloth wrapped her torso and hips in a kind of harness pattern, modest, but showing slivers of skin from shoulder to thigh. Long tassels of gossamer fabric hung to her knees like trails of mist, curling around her legs in a way that left her legs effectively bare all the way to her glossy black ballet shoes. Sturdy fastenings of black leather and metal, set with gemstones, held it all in place.

It wasn't even the most outlandish outfit on that street corner.

She gave me a slightly embarrassed little wave with the fingers of one hand. "I got dizzy and had to sit down and hyperventilate, the first time I saw it. Hi, I'm Eelesia. Welcome to the Crossroads."

"Thanks," I said to her. She was cute. "My name's Cameron. What _is_ this place?"

"It's the world at the center of the Veil. It touches the real world at every point of artifice, building itself out of bits of city from all over the solar system," Eelesia told me. "This block is mostly San Francisco, Seattle, London, and a bit of Esidara."

"And we could _walk_ to all four of those places, from here," I suddenly realized. "Even though Esidara is on the _moon_. That explains a lot..."

Eelesia giggled. "Doesn't it? Also can I hug you."

"Uh." I stared at her for a moment. That was random. "Sure?"

Before I even got the word all the way out, she was on me. Arms around me, chin on my shoulder, body pressed against me, warm and soft.

" _Oh_... kay." I hugged her back, shivering. "Why'd you want to hug me?"

"You needed a hug," Eelesia told me bluntly.

I couldn't exactly argue with that. "Is it that obvious?"

"No," Eelesia said. "I'm an Empathy Mage. Which is a magical girl with an empathic specialization. I know what 'needs a hug' looks like."

"You're a magical girl?" I asked, pulling back far enough to look at her.

Eelesia looked confused. "Of course. Can't you tell? I'm in my raiment and everything."

"Raiment?" I wondered.

Eelesia frowned. "Did your patron explain _anything_?"

"Um, patron?" I asked, with a sinking feeling.

Eelesia stared at me, wide-eyed. "Oh _yikes_. You really _don't_ know anything, do you."

"I don't even know if I'm really a magical girl," I admitted. "How do _you_ know I'm a magical girl?"

"You're wearing simulated clothes." Duh, her tone of voice seemed to say.

"That's different than a raiment?" I asked.

"It is the complete opposite of a raiment," Eelesia explained. "Those clothes are fake. Your raiment is more real than you are."

Well that wasn't ominous or anything.

Eelesia seemed to come to a decision, stepped back, and grabbed my hand. "Do you want to come have cookies with me? I really should explain the whole deal, and there's my favorite bakery over that way and I'll totally buy you a cookie and explain how to magical girl, if you want."

" _Please_ ," I agreed, with some considerable amount of feeling.

"Okay, follow me! This way," Eelesia announced, pulling me along.

* * *

 _April 27th, 2027_  
_Seattle, Washington_  
_Belltown_

It was much easier to leave the Crossroads than to get in. Eelesia simply led me _into_ the cubic block, ducked between two walls, and we came out into the chilly night air on a railed path overlooking the ocean. A reddish three-story pier extended out over the water and a small fountain burbled nearby. I could see the top of the Space Needle sticking up in the distance.

Something occurred to me, and I wondered, "What kind of bakery is open in the middle of the night?"

"Why do you _think_ it's my favorite?" Eelesia giggled.

"Ah. Of course. I should've guessed," I said wryly. "So, which way?"

Eelesia shook her head. "The distance is large. First, we should cover the absolute basics."

She took a step back and released my hand. The moment she did, the icy chill of the night air bit into me, distracting me for a moment as Eelesia struck a pose in front of the fountain. I looked at her again, and the cloth of her 'raiment' began to glow, like it was woven from pulsing fiber-optic threads, and then it began to fold on itself. It collapsed inward, disappearing into reflections of itself like shapes in the turning of a kaleidoscope.

In a handful of heartbeats, Eelesia stood before me completely naked. Her body was as perfect as my own, in its own way, sculpted to the ideal for her limber proportions. I only got the barest glimpse, though, because a second later Eelesia was dressed again. Canvas cut-offs, sneakers, and a tight-fitting purple sweater.

"Okay," she said. "Very, very first thing, here, so. You need to transform. Look inward. Find the words engraved at the center of your soul. That's your transformation aria. Pull it out into the real world and fill it with your voice, like this." She closed her eyes. "Ascendant over these innocent hearts, Gentle Psion Eternal Solace shall raise the sum of all passion to oppose this advent of despair!"

A glow rippled over Eelesia's skin, and her ordinary clothes burst apart where it touched them. Again, I got a bare second's glimpse of her naked body before streamers of glowing purple fabric and black gem-studded fasteners folded out of their own reflections and set themselves in place with puffs of multicolor light.

Eelesia smiled at me, hopeful. "Think you got it?"

I blinked. "Um. Yes. Okay..."

I focused inward, and she was right, it was easy. As soon as I knew what to look for, it was obvious that the layers of meaning in my mind did have a center. And at the center, I found a declaration. An ignition key. Everything I'd done up until now, I realized, had been with my magic sitting at rest.

I spoke, "Unafraid of rape, nor beholden to love, I will not be diverted from this, the one true cause. Every enemy of lust shall beware, Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve!"

Power flowed. Mana woke up, and my soul turned inside-out. Light cascaded over my flesh, obliterating my simulated outfit as that part of my magic shut down, paving the way for my _raiment_ to unfold into reality.

A metallic, jade green corset wrapped around my midriff, snug but flexible as it tucked itself into the crease under my breasts. A few short pleats of black cloth sprouted from the corset's flanks, accenting my hips. Four smooth, black, rubbery cords sprouted up to cup each breast, merging beside my nipples and then merging again above that, so a single conjoined strap went over each shoulder and made a 'V' on my back. Glossy black thigh-highs wrapped my legs, extending down into sturdy, leathery combat boots set with emeralds. Detached latex sleeves appeared on my arms, inset with wavy patterns in glittering emerald dust.

I felt the transformation finish, and the difference was striking. My spells were just _there_ , like limbs, ready to move. I grinned and opened my eyes.

Eelesia stared at me. Eelesia blushed.

I glanced down at myself, confirming what I already knew. My raiment supported my breasts, but it didn't cover them. It also neglected to cover _anything_ between my waist and my thighs.

"Oohhhhhh, kay there was more sex in that hug than I expected and that's not weird at all really but to get a raiment like _that_ you must be the gigantic-est slut ever," Eelesia breathed, then her eyes went wide and she waved her hands. "Not that I think that's bad! Miss sex-positivity, that's me. No shaming here, even retrocasually."

"Of course," I agreed, giggling. "I would... if _those_ are really the words etched on my soul... _Of course_ the, declaration of my magical purpose, made physical, would be built for sex."

I started playing with my shield spell. Shimmering, thrumming hexagons flickered into being around my hands at various sizes, popping into place and then vanishing as I willed it.

"I guess you probably won't be upset when you find out we can't have children, then," Eelesia mused.

I stopped. "Really?"

"Or when is now," Eelesia said. "Yeah. Magical girls can't get pregnant the normal way. That's always been true. Our bodies are too... static. We don't ovulate."

"It's probably better that way," I opined.

Eelesia blushed some more. "Magicals know a mage's raiment usually reflects her purpose. People on this side of the Veil are just going to think you're indecent, but people on our side are probably going to be making certain assumptions when they see you."

"Let them," I said, waving my shields away. I twisted and looked at my reflection in a dark shop window. "This feels right."

Eelesia suddenly tensed and pointed a finger off to the side. "Um... those people over there just noticed your, bottomlessness. We should probably skedaddle."

"Are they upset?" I wondered, glancing out of the corner of my eye. Three middle-aged women were pointing at me and two of them didn't look happy.

"Maybe kinda?" Eelesia shrugged.

"Okay. Let's go," I agreed.

Eelesia nodded, turned on her heel in a flurry of violet tassels, and launched herself into a sprint. I took off after her, following her across the street, over a set of train tracks, and out of the lamp-lit intersection. She was _fast_. I'd thought my own feats of superhuman roof-hopping had been pretty impressive, but it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't know what the scale was.

Kicking off a street-lamp, as in she leaped twelve feet into the air and landed sideways on the upper half of the steel pole, Eelesia sprang out over another intersection. She cleared the distance easily, swinging from the arm of the street-lamp to vault onto the fifth-story roof of a stepped apartment building.

I didn't think I could make that leap. Instead, I ran through the intersection and jumped up to grab the lower bar that had the stoplights on it. I swung up, but the bar was thick, and my grip slipped. I had a moment of reflexive panic before I saw the edge of the roof right there, and remembered that I had magic.

I cast a shield directly under my foot and kicked off.

"Fuck!"

My boot _slipped_ off the _magical surface that had no surface texture_. Instead of bounding lightly onto the roof I slammed into the wall just below it, _tits first_ , and wound up dangling from the edge by my fingertips. I let out a clenched scream as the roughness of the wall tore my exposed nipples off, or at least that's what it felt like.

"Cameron!" Eelesia's voice shouted.

I got my feet against the wall and vaulted up over the edge, only to skid to a stop on my knees, clutching my arms over my breasts. Heal. I had a fucking healing spell, heal already.

"Cameron! Are you okay?!"

There. Healed. That was much better. I let out a, "whew," and stood up. Eelesia had a hand outstretched, wreathed in motes of soothing blue light, but it looked like she'd forgotten about it in favor of staring at my chest.

"I'm okay," I reported.

Eelesia blinked and dropped her hand, blushing as her eyes lingered on my boobs. "How do you already have a spell like that? That was the most elegant healing spell I've ever seen."

"Um, thanks? I designed it myself," I told her uncertainly.

"Oooh, you have access to that? Neat!" Eelesia enthused. "You must be smart."

"That's not normal?" I wondered.

Eelesia went over to the edge and glanced down, checking for something, but she seemed reassured when she didn't find it. Making sure we hadn't drawn attention, I guessed. "Normally, magical girls get our spells from our patron. But you don't have a patron, so the tools they usually use for that must have stuck with you instead. How did you become a magical girl in the first place?"

"I, um, died," I told her. "I had to invent that spell to bring myself back to life. It calls itself Perfect Incarnation. It's the first spell I successfully cast."

Eelesia's eyes got very big. "You have _resurrection_?! Do you have any idea how rare that is? Even most Reinforcement Mages can't do that."

"But the ghost thing _is_ normal?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," Eelesia said. "As long as your soul is intact and unsealed, eventually enough mana will build up in your Body Image that it'll transubstantiate all by itself, but that usually takes a whole year."

I rubbed my face. "I think I need that cookie. This is too much exposition to remember all at once."

Eelesia smiled at me. "Sorry. I have not been explaining things at all in order."

"Well, you did start with finding the on-button," I offered. "What usually comes after learning to transform?"

"Your weapon," Eelesia said, nodding.

"That's promising," I said, thinking of the probably-a-succubus.

"I don't think you're stronger than me," Eelesia continued thoughtfully. "You're probably not meant to be a fist-fighter, so you probably have one. Magical girl weapons either absorb mana to do damage directly, to conjure projectiles, or to channel and amplify spells. _Most_ weapons are obviously melee, ranged, or mystic, but sometimes you get hybrids."

I nodded.

"Accessing your weapon is kind of like transforming. It's part of your raiment, sort of," Eelesia explained. She held her hand out to the side. "Just find its name, and call for it. _Brilliant Mercy!_ "

Two ends of a metallic staff shot in opposite directions from inside Eelesia's hand, snapping into being in half a second. No, that thing wasn't a staff. It was a _barbell_. Seven feet of chromed steel that had to weigh forty pounds all together, reinforced at both ends with a pair of black iron sleeves and inscribed with glowing blue runes along its length.

Eelesia twirled it like a cardboard tube, but I saw the way it's momentum tugged on her body. Brilliant Mercy wasn't any lighter than it looked. Eelesia was definitely stronger than me.

"This is my staff," Eelesia said. "It is both kinds of staff, a hitting things staff and a magic staff too. Can you find yours?"

I could. It was there. It had been the whole time. " _Emerald Bliss!_ "

A set of four glassy orbs rotated into existence from behind my wrist, coming out to orbit around my hand. Like giant marbles, each the diameter of my wrist, with a glowing emerald fractal embedded in the center of a clear sphere. I could feel them, responding to my will. I brought one into my hand and to my surprise it was warm, with a slick, ultra-smooth texture.

"Hmm. Mystic," Eelesia determined, peering at my orbs. "Can you do anything with them?"

It felt like I could. I sent one orb flying over to touch Eelesia's chin, and felt her suddenly become a valid target for Perfect Incarnation. "I can use them to cast touch-spells at range."

"Oooh," Eelesia said, giggling as I rolled the orb over her lips before pulling it back into orbit around my hand. "Anything else?"

"I think so," I told her as I pulled the four orbs up in front of me and touched them together in a row. "It feels like it has an alternate form."

Abruptly, the four orbs fused together, morphing into a single, singular shape. Of course. What else would _my_ weapon be?

Eelesia stared. "...your magical girl weapon is a dildo."

I grinned, because what else was I gonna do, and reached out to feel up my mystic weapon suggestively. "Kinda appropriate, huh?"

"Or the other thing," Eelesia replied faintly. "I thought girls like you only existed in porn."

My mouth fell open. "Pffffhahahahahahaha!" I fell down.

"Uh, hehe?" Eelesia tried. "I don't get it."

Laughing so hard, it took me a few moments to get myself under control, somewhat. "No, it's just, it's true! I do exist in porn."

"Huh?" Eelesia blinked. "Ohhhhh. Um, wow."

I finished giggling and picked myself up, shifting Emerald Bliss back into its orbs form. "Yeah. I'm gonna do porn for a living, if all goes as planned. Speaking of, you wouldn't happen to know how to get identity issues fixed, would you?"

Eelesia cocked her head at me. "You can't pass as your mortal self?"

"Not even slightly," I admitted.

"Um," Eelesia said. "You're a changeling, aren't you."

"A what?"

"You were a boy, before," Eelesia clarified.

"Oh," I said. "Yeah. I was. I like being a girl, though."

Eelesia and I looked at each other for a moment, before Eelesia rushed over and hugged me. "That's good. Lots of magical girls used to be boys, but it almost always sucks even if you adjust okay, because it's really hard to get around the Veil when you're trying to convince people who you used to be..."

I sighed. "Yeah."

"Do you miss them?" Eelesia asked. "Your family?"

"Less than I probably should," I admitted. "But, some."

Eelesia released me. "I'm sorry. I didn't really change much. I still live with my dad. So, I don't know myself, but I do know fake-id businesses are easy to find in the Crossroads."

"Okay," I told her. "I can work with that."

Eelesia smiled at me. "So is that it, for your weapon?"

I considered. "I think, it can also do this."

Pointing my arm off to the side, I focused on one of the four orbs. It responded and sucked up mana, beginning to glow a blazing green. Then I punched it forward. The orb blazed away like an emerald comet.

It zipped away, missing the edge of the roof and plowing into the middle of the street below. A small flash and a small explosion, and then a small crater. I stared for a long moment, as a new orb folded into being from behind my wrist.

"Oops."

"Um... run?" Eelesia suggested, giggling.

"Run," I agreed.

We took off, grinning at the absurdity. Eelesia sprang to a higher ledge, and I followed without trouble. We raced towards the edge, approaching another, much taller, squarish apartment building. This one had two sets of fire-escapes stretching up the side that faced us.

Eelesia didn't even slow down. She leaped from the edge, arcing over the tree-filled gap, and landed against the wall of the taller building. I followed, leaping as hard as I could, and hit the wall just below her. She rebounded off one fire-escape towards the other, bounced from that one back to the first, and zig-zagged her way up the side of the building.

I considered doing it her way, but, no, climbing it was. I stayed on the outside of the first fire-escape, vaulting from railing to railing like I was climbing the world's biggest ladder.

Eelesia waited for me at the top, but as soon as I made it, she took off at a sprint, picking up speed as she raced across to the opposite side of the roof. I followed her, pushing hard to match her speed. She leaped, I leaped, and...

Oh fuck.

...we sailed out into empty space. Once we started to fall, I managed to recognize the much lower roof on the far side of the _very wide_ main street separating the two city blocks. A baseline human would've broken both legs and probably died, I don't care how good they were at parkour.

Eelesia landed with a graceful roll and came to her feet like it was nothing. I didn't know how to roll like that. This was going to hurt.

At the last instant, I remembered to start healing myself. I hit, tried to throw myself into a roll, misjudged the force. My shoulder slammed into the roof, hard, and I twitched from the pain of crunching bone, throwing my roll even further off. Instead of coming to my feet I went tumbling across the roof like a rag-doll.

When the world stopped spinning, I found myself flat on my back, looking up at Eelesia from between her feet.

"Maybe we should just walk," Eelesia suggested sheepishly.

* * *

 _April 27th, 2027_  
_Seattle, Washington_  
_An All-Night Bakery_

At a small round table next to a display case full of cakes, I sat and poked at one of my shields while Eelesia bought us cookies.

It wasn't that the little hexagon was _frictionless_. When I pressed on it with my finger, it felt like a material object, not a force field. I could _do_ force fields, I was pretty sure, but this wasn't. It was more like, a virtual solid.

I pressed down with my finger, with slowly increasing pressure. As I suspected, pressing harder _didn't_ make it harder to drag my finger across the surface. If anything, friction seemed to decrease the harder I pressed.

Eelesia plopped down across from me, looking cuter than ever in her simulated sweater and in the warm lighting of the bakery. She set a carton of milk and a delicious-smelling chocolaty chip cookie in front of me. "What'cha doing?"

"Seeing if I can learn to air step," I explained, dispelling the shield with a grin.

Eelesia bounced. "And?"

"I probably can," I told her, "but it's going to take more practice than I hoped it would."

"Neat." Eelesia took a bite of her cookie and sighed happily. "So, the next thing you should probably know about are soul-mods."

I looked at her expectantly. And bit into my cookie. Gooey chocolaty goodness.

"Think, magitech cybernetics, only, in your soul instead of in your body," Eelesia said. "We're both using the most common one right now. Every magical girl's got Style these days."

She grinned at the pun, and I giggled. "That's why it feels so separated from spell casting?"

Eelesia nodded. "In theory you could instantiate the mods in anything, and anyone could use them, it's just that magical girls are the only practical source of clean mana large enough to power them. Anyway, you've got Style figured out, but I'll be very surprised if you don't also have a Pocket and Sustain, because those three are standard."

"What are those for?" I asked, when Eelesia paused to wait for me to hold up my end of the conversation.

"Sustain compensates for the mental effects of sleep deprivation," Eelesia said. "That doesn't mean it's fun to do without, you'll feel like crap, just that we _can_. Pocket is just what it sounds like." Eelesia turned her hand and pulled a phone out of an invisible seam in the air. "You can fit about a purse's worth in there. Most magical girls have the three standard mods plus one utility mod and one high-power combat mod, and those can be almost anything."

"How do I tell what I have?" I wondered, as I tried to stick my cookie into my Pocket. Success! Cookiespace unlocked. Much tastier than hammerspace. I pulled my cookie out of cookiespace and took a bite.

Eelesia winced. "Normally, your patron would tell you. I don't know what you should do. Sorry."

"It's okay. What's the deal with the patron thing, anyway?" I wondered.

"That's kind of complicated," Eelesia warned. "It started with the Puchuu, and nobody really knows what the Puchuu are because they only interact with people through these little white stuffed-animal avatars."

I choked, downed some milk, and said, "I saw one! So that rabbit in a top hat _wasn't_ a hallucination."

Eelesia nodded. "I guess that one wrote you off when you died before it could explain anything. Puchuu don't usually have much in the way of bedside manner. Or tact. Or patience. Anyway, at some point, who knows how long ago, the whole magical girl thing kinda slipped their leash, and now the Puchuu are just one faction among several."

"What factions are there, other than the Puchuu?" I asked.

"The major ones are, the Beacon, the Ebon Mint, the Horrors, and the Forces," Eelesia listed. "I work for the Beacon, who're kinda like the opposite of the Puchuu. They also use stuffed-animal avatars, but if anything they've got too much bedside manner and patience. Their priorities are _not_ well-reasoned or sensible."

"You sound kind of fed-up with them," I observed.

Eelesia sighed. "A little. But they pay me to go intervene when other magical girls get in over their heads, so that's good."

"They pay you? With money?" I asked.

"Oh, I haven't explained our currency yet!" Eelesia exclaimed. "No, they pay me in dice, they have an actual name but everyone calls them dice, because look."

She drew a handful of small glowy things out of her Pocket and set them on the table. It looked like someone had trapped live auroras in little geometric cages. There were also numbers projected on the faces, but all the faces had the same number, which was much higher than the number of faces.

"Tet," Eelesia pointed at the triangular-faced one, "hex," the cube, "oct," the eight-sided triangular one, "dode," the one that looked like a d12. She picked up the oct, which had a '23' on all of its faces, and pulled at it. Suddenly she had two octs, one with '2' on its faces and the other with '21' on its faces.

"Okay. Neat," I said.

"These are basically solid, refined mana," Eelesia added. "They're not just money. They're also the _only_ safe way to power sorcery."

"Sorcery?"

"Ritual magic, magitech, and anything else you can do with mana if you're not magical yourself," Eelesia explained, sweeping up her dice. "The Beacon makes these. There's a competing currency put out by the Ebon Mint, more powerful but dangerous to use. There're white coins called alphas, and black coins called omegas. I don't have any, because that's against the rules."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Is it a stupid rule?"

"Yep." She gave me a considering look. "Y'know, they think chastity is a virtue, and some of their girls, not me but some, are under oaths of celibacy."

"What the fuck," I whispered, horrified. That was, that was just _pointless suffering_. I mentally filed the Beacon under Bad Guys.

"Like I said," Eelesia sighed, "but they're good at pointing me where I need to go, so I put up with them. And I'm good at playing Sixth Ranger, so they put up with me."

I was almost afraid to ask, but, "What about the other three?"

Eelesia perked up. "Well, the Ebon Mint is actually run by humans, if you're really generous with your definition of human. There're all kinds of rumors, but my favorite is the one where they were a black ops government research group that got taken over by their magical-criminal test subjects. They're kinda just passively evil like a big corporation."

I nodded.

"The Horrors... kinda defy description, which is why they're called that," Eelesia continued. "They're not really a faction, just kind of a category of thing, and I don't know much more because the Beacon hates Horrors to a ridiculous degree and I'm not allowed to learn about them."

I facepalmed. In sympathy. She giggled.

"Then there're the Forces," Eelesia said, "which aren't organized at all and aren't even really a category. Gods, demons, elementals, anything naturally incorporeal. There are not many general statements I can make about Forces."

"Okay," I said. "Thanks for explaining all this."

"Sure!" Eelesia said with a smile. "This has been fun. How's your cookie?"

"Gooey and delicious," I told her mock-seriously.

"Good." She giggled. "Do you—"

Her phone chirped and buzzed. Eelesia glanced down and poked the screen, but she froze with her finger poised. Her head snapped down to look again. She paled, snatching up her phone and reading with a stricken expression.

"Eelesia?" I tried.

"I'm, I'm sorry, I have to go," she said haltingly. "Do you remember how to get back on your own?"

Fountain, pier, Crossroads, big cylinder vents. "Yeah, I do. What's..."

I trailed off. Eelesia was already out the door. I watched the door swing shut. Okay then. Slowly, in case she was going to come back and ask for help, I turned back to my cookie. She didn't reappear.

I nibbled on my cookie and mulled over all the exposition she'd dropped on me. It gave me a much clearer picture than I'd started with, that was for sure, but...

I stopped mid-chew. Damn it! I completely forgot to ask about the succubus!


	3. EELESIA

_April 27th, 2027_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Spokane Police Department_

"We have it on video," Officer Calton said, a woman, olive-skinned, kind of pretty, but too... _false_ , for it to matter. "We know your father molested you. You don't need to lie for him."

The police interrogation room was too bright and too quiet as I huddled, feeling lost and sickeningly numb, on a folding chair with my arms clutched around myself.

"I'm not lying," I bit out, refusing to raise my eyes from the fake wood pattern of the table. "Dad would never hurt me. He _wouldn't_."

"I know it can be scary, to let yourself say it out loud," the police woman continued in that same condescending, sympathetic voice. "Sometimes saying it can be like making it real. But, Elessa - "

"My name is _Eelesia_ ," I corrected her petulantly. "Ee. LEE. ZEE. Ah."

"Eelesia. Sorry," the police woman said, a skin-crawlingly fake friendly softness on her face. "I know it can be hard, admitting your father's a bad man, but you don't have to worry. We won't let him hurt you ever again. You can tell us." _And then we can string that pedophile up by the balls._

My chest burned with the frustration that these people just would not listen, and I snapped my head up to glare. "No! And he's not a pedophile! I was sixteen! Not _eight_."

Officer Calton seemed thrown for a moment, and I felt a flicker of hope, before I suddenly realized it wasn't my words that had an effect. I was so upset I'd slipped and responded to her unspoken thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud. When _was_ the first time he... touched you, sexually?" she asked in a curious tone.

* * *

 _December 31st, 2025_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Eirian Residence_

The den was all lit up in colorful warmth by the Christmas decorations that were still up. It was just me and Dad, staying up to watch the New Year's Eve ceremonies, and I was all ready for bed even though I was probably going to be up all night.

That was Dad's rule. I could stay up as late as I wanted as long as I finished my nightly routine before my bedtime.

Teeth brushed, face washed, hair combed, and dressed in my panties and an old well-worn tank-top that was getting a little too small, I scampered over to the sofa and dove into the nest of blankets next to Dad. I wriggled around until I was comfortably tangled up, and flopped sideways, throwing my head on the armrest as I stretched and yawned. I hung my arms out over my head and stuck my legs out across Dad's lap, before relaxing into a contented heap.

Dad startled out of whatever he'd been thinking about. "Eelesia! Knees! What have I told you about the knees?"

I giggled. "Sorry."

He patted my bare leg and gave me one of those looks he'd been giving me ever since Mom died, like he would be sad, but I was there, so he's not, but he's still thinking about being sad. I caught his hand and nuzzled my head on his arm.

We watched the ceremony together, and wished each other a happy New Year. Once it was over, Dad got up, kissed my forehead, and handed me the remote. I watched him go, and heard his bedroom door close. Given the run of the cable box, I made sure the volume was down really low, and started scrolling down the list of shows, looking for something interesting.

I found myself lingering on the thumbnail image of one of those TV-MA movies that pretended to be porn, and blushed as my thumb hovered over the enter button. I glanced around to make sure I was still alone, and I then sighed. I was kinda horny, and now that I thought about it, going into my room and browsing for some actual porn was more appealing than staying out here and laughing at pretentious pseudo-porn.

Lamenting the sacrifice of my cozy blanket cocoon, I peeled myself out of the tangle and shut the TV off. I went to listen at Dad's door, didn't hear anything, and padded back to my room.

After I made sure that my door was shut and locked, I wiggled out of my tank-top and panties, stuffing both under my pillow so I could get to them in a hurry without getting out of bed, and grabbed my laptop.

Settling under the covers on my belly with my computer against the headboard, I pulled up an incognito window and typed in a familiar URL that I was too embarrassed to keep in my bookmarks. The screen filled with enticing video thumbnails. I glanced back to double-check that my door was securely closed, and settled in to pleasure myself.

Midway through watching a tiny limber blonde get pounded into an absurdly white bed from behind by a glistening adonis, I heard a loud thump through the wall. My finger snapped down on the keyboard to pause the video and open up an innocuous new tab. I froze in place and listened as hard as I could.

Feet shuffling on carpet. Dad was still awake after all.

Another loud thump, like... like a sleepwalker shoulder-checking a doorjam. Oh no! Dad forgot to lock himself in again? Another thump, this one further towards the front of the house. Oh crap crap crap!

I wiped my fingers dry on my sheets and grabbed my underwear from under my pillow. I kicked the covers off and threw myself off the bed. I was scrambling, half panicked, and only managed to get one leg into my panties before I got to the door and cracked it to peek out. I struggled to look and get my other leg into my underwear at the same time.

Dad wasn't in view, so I held still to listen again. It sounded like he was going for the front door, and that definitely didn't sound like Dad doing stuff awake! I had to stop him!

I threw open the door and dashed quietly down the hall, bare-ass naked with one arm over my chest and my panties dangling from one ankle. I just had to make sure Dad didn't wander out into the street and then I could go stop being naked long enough to get him back into his room.

This had been happening, on and off, since Mom. It was usually okay, once a week or so I'd hear him bumping around in his room in the middle of the night and in the morning he said he had no idea that he'd done anything, but he usually didn't even _need_ to lock himself in! This was serious! He could freeze to death!

I peeked around the corner and stumbled at the sight of Dad's totally naked body as he meandered around the foyer. The interruption and the panic had doused my mood somewhat, but I was still very worked up physically, enough that I felt a spark reignite between my legs at the unexpected view. Dad wasn't exactly a hunk, but he had a nice lean figure and nice skin and the only hard cock I'd ever seen in real life, _oh my god bad brain stop it that is not a thought that's allowed in this head!_

Dad reached for the front door.

I made an "eep" sound and leaped out of cover. I raced over and caught Dad's wrist. He resisted me and kept trying for the door, but he wasn't trying hard enough that I couldn't hold him back.

"Not that way. Not that way," I murmured softly. "You want to go this other way, that way's cold, you want to go this way where it's warm."

Slowly, I managed to get him to turn around. I was determined not to look down more than I had to, because I was _not_ going to ogle my own father. His glazed eyes passed over me as I finally got him to walk in the direction I wanted him to go, but after a couple steps his unfocused eyes settled on me. Movement drew my gaze downward, and I looked before I could stop myself. Dad's dick twitched, and it jutted out harder and larger than before, swelling right in front of my eyes.

I shivered as an insistent throb disturbed my core. _Damn it stop looking, why are you still looking, seriously stop looking stop thinking or it'll be SO AWKWARD so STOP IT!_

"Rianna..." Dad breathed, jolting my gaze back to his face.

_Oh._ Dad was dreaming about Mom. I reminded him of Mom. I couldn't help the small smile of pure pleasure I felt, or the less welcome naughty thrill that came with it. It _was_ a thrill, though, and it made me feel good about myself.

Distracted, I bumped against the sofa, and like something out of a slapstick comedy, the surprise made me jump, which pressed me right up against Dad's boner. I squeaked and jumped back, but Dad followed me, and brought the both of us toppling down.

I flailed for balance and somehow ended up in the same position I was in earlier, lengthwise across the sofa on my back, only this time I didn't have any clothes on or any blankets covering me. Dad folded over my middle, his breath tickling my hip, and I felt the searing warmth of his cock rub my leg.

The throbbing at my apex doubled in intensity. Seeing it was one thing, but now it was touching me. I cringed. If Dad asked me in the morning, I was so going to lie and skip this part, even if... A desperate giggle tore out of my chest at the irony of Dad almost dry humping my knee after complaining about my knees earlier.

Oh god what if he woke up _now_? That happened sometimes, didn't it? I choked on my giggles as my muscles locked up, my heart thundering in my ears. Okay, I was just going to hold very still and wait for a miracle.

Dad's dreams apparently had other ideas. As soon as I decided on that course of inaction, he turned his head and started kissing my belly. His clean-shaven face and warm lips felt so nice on my skin. My breath hitched as I fought to hold still.

Dad shifted himself up onto the couch properly. Between my legs, and laying on me. I could barely breathe, and I wasn't even sure if it was the boiling excitement of my own body or the weight of Dad's. His warm hands caressed the small hopeful mounds of development on my chest, sending tingling waves of squirming warmth roiling down between my legs.

I tried so hard to stay still, but I was trembling. If I had an orgasm _here_ , pinned under Dad's naked body while he dreamed of Mom, I could not _imagine_ how I was going to face him in the morning. But I was so close to the edge from nothing more than his hot abs pressing down on my bare pussy.

Dad lowered his mouth to my nipple, kissed and _sucked_ and... it came on in a building rush, unmistakable and equally unstoppable.

My legs wrapped tight around Dad's body and my arms clutched around his neck, as spasm after guilty spasm imploded oh so wonderfully within me. For a moment I forgot it was Dad, and I was just a girl in the throes of sexual gratification, wrapped around a warm firm body touching skin to oh so much skin as it brought me pleasure.

A mortified blush all but glowed from my face. _Please still be asleep please still be asleep please still be asleep..._

He was. I sighed with relief. Now I could just cuddle Dad and pretend it was only skinship, pretend the wetness all over my thighs and Dad's abs was just sweat. Pretend my horny urges hadn't gone and made it _weird_. Being a sexual creature and being a daughter were _not_ supposed to share headspace! It was probably just a fluke, since I was so worked up in the first place when I rushed out of my room.

And then my breath caught all over again, because Dad was still moving. He was moving alright, he was moving up to align our bodies in a _very_ recognizable way.

"Nhhh stay with me, Ria..." Dad whispered.

"Dad!" I squeaked before I could stop myself. "D.... _Dad_. Da' _aaa_ gkh."

My frantic whisper choked off before I could even get my mind all the way around what was about to happen, as I felt it pressing, felt my slick entrance yielding. And then it was _in me_ , and it was too late, too late to stop it, too late to do anything but feel my flesh stretch and be filled.

Dad was having sex with me. Dad was _having sex_ with me. _Dad_ was having sex with me. Dad was having sex with _me_.

Nothing in my mind even tried to resist the pleasure this time. This wasn't my doing. This wasn't one-sided, me being a pervert and getting off on my Dad's naked body. This was sex. He was fucking me, and it felt incredible. This was _meant_ to make me cum.

And I was going to cum, no question. Orgasm came easily to me. I could already feel it building, rising, winding up to erupt with each sensuous thrust. I was going to cum _hard_ and I was going to cum whether I wanted to or not.

Many disjointed thoughts passed through my head between those ecstatic moments as I panted raggedly, but the one that stuck was, _This is what it was like for Mom._

This was what Mom felt, what she saw and tasted and touched. I was in Mom's place. This was what it was like for her when Dad made love to her. It was a connection to Mom so breathtakingly visceral, it brought tears to my eyes.

I could, just stop thinking, and _revel_. It was already happening. I couldn't stop it. The wrongness of it was far away and had no power over me. It was like me and Dad stumbled out of reality into this tiny self-contained universe of blissful simplicity.

And then, moaning into my hair, Dad climaxed, but before I could dwell on the warm flood in my depths, he woke up.

I watched it happen, watched his eyes focus, but the mortification I would've expected to feel simply failed to show up. My rational mind recognized the impending disaster, but I was too full of good feelings to feel anything else.

Dad had a very different reaction. He looked down at me, pinned under him, flushed and sweating, panting and shuddering, my legs splayed wide around his hips as he pumped his cum deep inside my distended pussy. There was _no_ denying the evidence. There was _no_ ambiguity about what had just happened.

Blood drained from his face, and from elsewhere. He stared down at me, his face a mask of horror. My heart wrenched. Dad shouldn't look at me like that. He shouldn't _ever_ look at me like that, but especially not now, when nothing mattered and everything was beautiful.

He started to pull away, removing himself from me, and just like that my little private universe buckled and the incestuous reality that had been waiting around the edges of the rapturous sex came rushing back in. And with it came a rapidly building sense of creeping panic that grew with every inch of Dad's skin that parted from mine.

"No!" I clutched at him, desperate, to stop him from lifting himself off of me with all my might. "Don't go!"

Dad froze. After a moment, he slowly, wordlessly, let my arms pull him back down, but he held very still. Like he was scared the slightest movement could shatter me like glass.

I was scared too, but not of him hurting me. He hadn't, and he wouldn't, and I trusted him with all my heart, and it killed me to see him so afraid. But so long as he was still within me, on top of me, the blissful break from reality wasn't over. If I let him withdraw, let him acknowledge the end of our coupling, it felt like that wall between being a daughter and being a sexual creature would go back up; it'd go back up right in the middle of my heart, and break me in half.

So I clung to him, and begged, "Just, don't, please, stay."

"Oh... god, Eelesia..."

"You were, dreaming about Mom," I ventured softly, as an explanation. And I felt that stupid smile creeping back onto my face. I couldn't help the sense of pride that came with... measuring up.

I felt him nod. "Eelesia. I'm so... sorry..."

"It was..." I wanted to tell him it was alright, that it was nice and I liked it and he didn't hurt me even a little, but, I just couldn't force the words out. "...you thought I was Mom."

Dad continued to hold very still and let me clutch him, but I could feel him tremble. "Are.. are you..."

"Shhh." I let my hands caress his skin, and felt him stiffen all over again. "You were sleepwalking. It's... it's okay... it... you didn't hurt me."

It was a major accomplishment, getting those words out with how hard my heart was pounding. Dad trembled, then he shook, then I heard him sob into my hair. I felt the sting of tears in my own eyes, because I couldn't feel Dad cry without crying too.

"You did this with Mom, a lot, didn't you?" I ventured, swallowing thickly. "You... you loved her, and you love me too."

Dad shuddered, and I felt, inside me, the slow swelling of his shaft stopped. He withered. And I suddenly understood that he thought he'd broken me.

"Not like that!" I rushed to add, clutching him tighter. "This... this doesn't change anything. This doesn't change anything. You're still my dad. I still love you the same as I did yesterday, and you still love me the same as you did yesterday."

"I love you," Dad agreed hoarsely. "I'm sorry."

"I'm okay, Dad," I told him. "I promise. I love you."

* * *

 _April 27th, 2027_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Spokane Police Department_

I looked up at Officer Calton and glared, refusing to answer.

Officer Calton turned away with a frustrated sigh. "Look, Eelesia. We already have proof that this happened. There's no point staying quiet. But we need the whole truth to do our jobs properly."

I gave her a skeptical look. "I don't believe you."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't believe you really have video," I said. "You wouldn't be trying so hard to get a confession out of me if you already had proof."

"I assure you, the video is real," she claimed.

"Then show me," I told her. "Show me the video."

Officer Calton tried to backpedal. "It would hardly be appropriate to subject you to that..."

I gave her a look of utter contempt. "To video _of me_?"

The policewoman's polite facade finally cracked. "Alright you little slut, you know what? Fine." She whipped out her phone, tapped the screen, and held it out at me. "Is that real enough for you?"

I looked. The image showed my bedroom, looking down on my bed from the ceiling. A handsome man and a beautiful teenage girl were having sex on the bed. Dad was on his back, face clearly visible, with me on top, face turned up as I rode him to climax.

"Oh," I whispered softly, stricken. It was a beautiful moment. I'd never felt so violated as I did then, seeing that moment in hands that would use it against me.

"That's right," Officer Calton said smugly. "Your daddy's going away for a long time. And you, you're gonna cooperate and say whatever we damn well tell you to say, or I might start suggesting that a girl in your position ought to be placed in intensive psychiatric care. Clearly you've been _damaged_ by your _experience_ , honey. You're gonna play ball with us or you're gonna spend the rest of your life strapped to a bed. Your choice."

Slowly, I pushed my chair back and stood up.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" Officer Calton demanded. " _Get_ your ass back in that chair. We're not done."

I used my Sight, revealing the tapestry of energy saturating the Veil in this room and beyond. Smears of red-band and violet-band veilforms clung to table and the walls, dripped _ana_ like condensation on the skein of reality. Remnants of rage and fear, respectively. A seething red-band froth of triumph haloed Officer Calton, swelling _kata_ , while she dripped a small core of green-band revulsion.

I began to siphon off the energy. I couldn't do much with it in my untransformed state, but that wasn't my aim. All I needed was enough of a flow to back-propagate and flatten the veilforms on top of her brain.

"Yes, we are," I said softly as the veilforms collapsed violently and the backlash forcibly canceled Officer Calton's emotions. "You're not a protector. You're a predator. And we will not be your prey."

"Uh... no..." She swayed, dazed. It wouldn't last long, but it would last long enough.

"I need to see my dad," I told her calmly. "Where is he being held right now?"

"I shouldn't tell you that..." _The tank, still processing him. Too bad it's a slow day. Disgusting pervert probably won't get beaten to death after all._ I caught a glimpse of her mental image, too, showing where that was in relation to here.

I didn't need my eyes to use my Sight, and mundane walls were no barrier either. I looked where her thoughts showed me, sorting through the several different people I could sense by the ripples they produced in the Veil. Dad's familiar aura was there, violet veilforms bulging into anaspace, and I honed on him.

—hard bench, cold concrete, sweating anyway with the same sick dread from the first flashing light. I deserved this, didn't I? I should've been stronger—

_No, Dad, don't let them get to you, don't let them make you doubt..._

—going to break her. My poor baby girl. Why did I let her encourage me? Eelesia deserved better than this. How could I've been so weak—

"Oh, Dad," I whispered, quavering as I forced myself to shut him out.

Officer Calton tried to say something, but I ignored her. I just left. The door was locked, but I was _seriously_ beyond caring. I grabbed the handle and ripped it out of the frame with brute strength. Leaving it aside, I walked into the hall like there was nothing strange about that.

It was funny, really. I hunted the monsters that preyed on humanity, nightmares in the dark places, but that was about preventing harm, not _looking for someone to punish_. And some of those monsters had more regard for their food than these so-called lawful protectors had for a man who'd never hurt anyone.

They were no better than the things I hunted, and I was _not_ going to let them have Dad.

* * *

 _January 12th, 2026_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Eirian Residence_

I peered at the cool little glowing d4 that some girl I'd never met had traded me for my lunch at school today. It must have been some kind of joke die, because it had a '4' on all four of its sides. Still, it was really pretty, and I wanted to know if it was from a set or anything.

As usual, Google came through for me. Eventually. I had to search for a while before I found a photo that matched what I had in my hand, and even longer to track down the original source of the photo, or at least a reblog that included the associated article.

It was talking about thaumic engineering, like, powering magical—apparently the glowing die was used as a prop in some kind of fantasy game magic mechanic. The article linked to a wiki with instructions for various rituals, and I quickly became engrossed in the mechanics. It was fascinatingly complicated, with detailed low-level rules and sophisticated interdependencies.

By the time I emerged from my nerd fugue, it was evening, and I could hear Dad cooking dinner. I padded out of my room, bare feet quiet on the thick carpet, and went into the kitchen.

"Hey, sweetie." Dad smiled at me, a little guiltily. "Hungry?"

He'd been overcompensating, ever since the sleep-fucking incident, acting more like he used to when Mom was alive. I figured he was trying to make himself see me as a little kid instead of the budding young woman I was, and wasn't having much success.

I'd admit to a little bit of pride at that.

I made sure to give Dad a good, long hug. He'd gotten way too skittish about touching me, but I wasn't about to let him get away with _that_. Hugs were important, and he needed to accept that I wasn't going to stop hugging him just because he got a boner.

Dinner was quiet, but that was okay, that was normal for us. I spent most of the time thinking about the thaumic engineering wiki. It turned out to be a lot of fun to imagine how I might build my own rituals. Maybe I'd even draw one out for real, just to see if it was practical to perform.

Doing anything complicated—for a programmer's definition of complicated—required specific physical components to provide a material example of the concept you wanted to manipulate, and the rules didn't tolerate ambiguity. It was a system that _didn't_ run on symbolism.

Later, back in my room, I got out a sheet of paper and a pen. I didn't want to bother with material components just for play, but I could still test my understanding of the rules by building a simple machine.

Following the wiki's instructions, I set the glowing die in the center of the page and drew lines from each of its points, then enclosed those lines in a triangle. I added small circles at each point, and wrote a randomly-chosen rune in each circle. This was the power core for a single 'tet' as the wiki called it, and pronouncing one of the runes out loud would draw mana to that point.

"Nir, Oum, Khz," I intoned whimsically, _and the lines of the drawing lit up in sequence_ , rainbow auroras slashing out of the pen strokes—

What was I doing? Oh right, reading the pronunciations of the runes I'd chosen. The instructions said to test the power core before adding any functional parts to the ritual. It didn't matter which runes were used, just like it didn't matter to the computer what you named a variable in a program.

I looked at the triangular diagram surrounding the pretty little tet with a '3' on each face. Testing the power core was obviously a make-believe step, but I was having fun, so I giggled and chanted, "Khz, Nir, Oueeeehh?!"

The points of the triangle _lit up_ , rainbow auroras slashing out of the pen strokes—

I looked at my drawing, and the glowing little die with a '2' on each of its faces. Testing the power core was obviously a make-believe step, but I was having fun, so I sat up straight and said, "Oum?"

One point of the triangle _lit up_ , rainbow aurora slashing out of the pen stroke—

I blinked at the tet at the center of my drawing. I could've sworn it had a different number on its faces, not the '1' that was there now. I rubbed my eyes. My head kind of hurt for some reason. I was probably imagining things.

Testing the power core was obviously a make-believe step, but it felt important. Weirdly important. Well, never let it be said that I let dignity get in the way of having fun.

"Nir, Oum, Khz!" I intoned grandly.

The tet dissolved into glowing motes, rainbow aurora slashing out of the pen strokes in sequence as the lines of the power core lit up—

—snap—

* * *

Ow.

Magic was real.

Also, ow.

I sat up and pushed myself off the floor, snatching up the paper with the ritual diagram. The drawing was gone, and I don't just mean the ink, I mean it looked like someone had cut the lines out of the paper with a razor, leaving tiny ragged slits.

That had really happened. I'd done real actual magic.

Four times.

Dizzy, I staggered back, falling against my bed. Four times. That had also happened. What the fuck.

And that was when I remembered that the girl who'd given me the tet had scales. Shiny obvious bright red scales, anywhere a normal girl would have body hair. There was also a boy in my math class who had hooves.

Invisible to normals.

I just stopped being a normal.

There was a high-pitched hysterical wheezing sound coming from somewhere. Oh, that was me. Which made sense, because I was _freaking out_.

I stuck my head between my knees and moaned. When that didn't help, I jumped up and scurried out of my room. It was dark, and quiet. I glanced at a clock and saw that it was after midnight.

Dad was asleep in bed. I crept into his room and watched him sleep, feeling slightly calmer.

I hated not knowing, I hated ignorance, but I was so afraid and I hated that fear most of all, for making me wonder what I'd lost tonight. Maybe it would be fine. Maybe I'd just doomed myself to some horrible fate. I _didn't know_.

I hesitated, but in that moment I was a scared little girl and I wanted my daddy. I lifted the covers and got in next to him, wriggling into place against his body. I pulled his arm around me and pulled the covers over my head, shivering.

Tomorrow. By tomorrow I'd be thinking clearly enough to deal with this. For tonight, I was going to stop thinking before I gave myself a stroke. For tonight, I just wanted Dad to hold me.

Around when my eyelids were finally drooping, Dad rolled over to spoon me. I felt his hard-on press against my butt, and with a little tender fumbling his hand found its way under my tank-top.

"Mm, Rianna... missed you..." he mumbled in his sleep.

O-oh. Or he was going to make love to me again? That was good too...

* * *

 _April 27th, 2027_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Spokane Police Department_

I strode across the main floor. Any Officers who thought to question me got flattened, rendered emotionally inert for a few moments. I grabbed a marker pen off one of their desks in passing. I usually wasn't so free with the Veil-crushing trick, but today was special.

Unfortunately, a hitch in my plans was waiting for me in the reception area, in the form of a petite blonde teenage girl. "Omigod, Lace! There you are! Are you okay?"

"Radi?" I blurted, now recognizing the glow of her soul, and her face. This was Radical Maiden Lyrical Sniper, a Sound Mage and fellow magical girl. "Um. What."

She hugged me. Okay, sure. Hug was nice.

"They told me you were giving a statement, but it's been _hours_ and I was getting worried," she said, rapid-fire. "I can't believe this is real, you've always been such a strong person, I still remember how you totally saved me and Spark last year."

"It was close," I remembered. "What are you doing here, Radi?"

"My name's Jasmine, by the way, you can just call me that," she told me. "I know you're Eelesia but I'm just so used to calling you Lace in my head, you know?"

I glanced over my shoulder, where some of the cops were starting to shake off the flattening effect. I didn't have time for this.

"What are you doing here, Jasmine?" I asked again.

She grinned. "Remember what I said to you after you saved me?"

* * *

 _November 9th, 2026_  
_Bainbridge Island, Washington_  
_Unsene Production Center_

I raced at full speed through the trees. The tassels of my raiment trailed me, purple streamers in the wind. I glanced at the small black-furred stuffed lion bounding along beside me, floating more than running.

"You are almost out of time," the small and fluffy Beacon avatar said in its incongruently grand, manly voice. "Gloaming Spark and Lyrical Sniper are defeated, and will soon be dead."

"How long?" I hissed out as I vaulted over a fallen log.

The Beacon avatar remained silent for a few moments. "The enemy's shinigami is arguing with the fey leader over how to kill them."

I burst out of the treeline, spotting the fortified warehouse laid out in front of me. I summoned Brilliant Mercy into my hand, and at the same time, opened my Sight.

After a moment of frantic searching, I spotted the two souls inside, together on the floor. The fey were easier. Fey had enough magic in their bodies that I could actually make out their forms with Sight alone. There were a half-dozen lumps on the ground, dissolving away, and six survivors. Two floating cloaks, accompanied by sickle blades, three female humanoid forms with six arms each, and brighter than the rest combined, a withered feminine shape at the center of an absolute void in the Veil. Lastly, there was a weird flickering, a doubled snarl, which had to be the shinigami, a human possessed by a spirit of death.

That void would be the biggest problem for me. She had to be my first target, taken out with physical force so she couldn't counter my magic while I fought the rest.

I vaulted over a barbed-wire chain-link fence and sprinted across trimmed grass. I needed an entry point. There. A loading dock just behind the crone. I slashed my hand through the air, sending an arc of defiance—negative red-band Veil energy drained from anaspace—towards the top of the metal rolling door, corroding it.

I hurled myself up, twisting around to slam feet-first into the center of the corrugated metal. The thin steel buckled, folding around me like a shroud as I careened into the warehouse, tearing the door out of its tracks.

I jabbed the end of my staff, glowing red with triumph—the positive mirror of defiance, collected from kataspace—into the impact point. The crumpled door blew apart violently, flowering open behind me, between me and the six-armed fey. Gunshots rang out, but I could feel their frustration when nothing hit me.

I got my first glimpse of the enemy with my physical eyes, in the split second before Brilliant Mercy cleaved into her head with enough force to crush a car. Tall, gaunt, ugly, stringy white hair, lips and nose blue like a corpse, but standing straight, dressed in modern urban camo with a web-belt and body armor.

The crone's neck snapped loudly as the force of the blow threw her fifty feet across the floor of the warehouse.

I landed lightly on my feet, danced aside as the remains of the door crashed down beside me, and swung Brilliant Mercy around to aim at the two unconscious magical girls. The runes along its length flared blue as I launched a powerful bolt of sorrow—the negative blue-band energy with regenerative properties—at them to bring them back from their wounds. The two girls woke up with a pair of pained gasps.

I darted aside as the six-armed fey spotted me and opened fire. It was hard to tell what they were, since they were also dressed head-to-toe in modern military gear, but if the three of them deigned to carry guns then they probably weren't too powerful themselves.

Diving behind a stack of crates, I screeched to a halt and bounded up. I came over the top of the stack, glowing green as I flooded my own body with awe—with the amplified strength of the positive green-band energy—to endure the impacts of several bullets on my way down.

I crashed down, driving a red-glowing Brilliant Mercy into the cement with a thunderous boom. A wave of corrosive defiance washed over the gun-toting fey, producing screams of pain. Their guns browned and flaked in their hands, holes sizzled open in their clothes, and their flesh looked badly burned.

I clubbed them on the head with Brilliant Mercy to make sure they stayed down.

"Holy fuck," cough, "that was awesome!" called the girl I presumed was Gloaming Spark, from where she laid.

A third girl stood over them, and I might have mistaken her for a magical girl if all I'd had were mundane eyes and I didn't already know better. She wore this skimpy monochrome gray athletic outfit adorned with metal bracelets and spiked belts, and carried a massive half-ring blade.

The pair of floating cloaks descended beside her, pure darkness within. Each held a massive, rusty scythe in one shadow-like hand. Reapers. Fey who hunted the lucky, those who believed they'd cheated death.

"What elegant brutality," the shinigami complimented me. "Why not finish the dance, hmm? These mara lay broken—"

"You will not sway this one, spirit," the deep, majestic voice of the Beacon interrupted. "She has sworn to us an oath of mercy. But you will not accomplish your goal here. Leave now, or we grant Eternal Solace leave to destroy you."

The shinigami merely smiled. "Oh is that how it is?" She shook her head mockingly. "These naughty naughty mortals, ever trying to escape their time's _end_. We stand upon a monument of stolen years, a shrine to the hubris of the damned, who thought to defy Death. They must be taught a lesson."

"Um!" I raised my index finger. "One thing?"

The shinigami cocked her head. "Yes?"

I pointed at her. "You are a moron," I told her flatly, and blasted her with bliss—the positive violet-band energy—to trap her in a cloud of drag, sticking her in place.

I darted forward, side-stepping one reaper's scythe and smashing an explosive blast into the other's cowl. A red glow lit up the empty space inside the cloak for a split second before the explosion tore the reaper apart.

"These aren't stolen years!" I screamed.

The surviving reaper's scythe slashed down and I raised Brilliant Mercy to block, runes glowing green. Steel crashed against steel, jarring my arms, but I held my ground, shoving the reaper back.

"This is lifespan humanity _made_ ," I roared, leaping up and swinging Brilliant Mercy down on the haft of the scythe, shattering the wood. "From scratch! With our own hands!"

I landed, spun, saw the reaper try to fly up out of my reach. I jabbed Brilliant Mercy upwards and a red explosive bolt speared into the cloak, blasting the reaper to shreds.

"You," violet glowing runes—terror, opposite to bliss, "are," running start, deadly aim, "OBSOLETE!"

My accelerated staff stabbed through the drag field without resistance, smashing into and _through_ the trapped shinigami's head. Her skull imploded, bursting apart under the force.

Breathing hard, I drew my staff back and planted it on the ground. The shinigami's body didn't fall. Headless, she remained trapped, blood and brain-bits and pieces of skull hung like a halo above her neck. Drat. That was the last of my bliss. I was always running out of that one.

I went over to the other two magical girls and knelt down. "Are any of your bones broken?"

"That was so cool..." Lyrical Sniper winced. "Um, my leg."

"Yeah, I think I busted a couple ribs," Gloaming Spark informed me, "but I think you got those with that first spell."

I felt along the leg in question, told her to brace herself, and snapped the bone back into place. I didn't need to get it perfect. Her Style wouldn't let her scar, and that included internal scars. I pressed my blue-glowing hand down over the break, then switched over to Gloaming Spark's torso.

"Thanks so much, Eternal Solace," Lyrical Sniper gushed.

"I shorten my title to 'Lace'," I offered. "You can call me that."

She nodded rapidly. "We go by Radi and Spark!"

"Radi?" I wondered.

"It's short for Radical, as in Radical Maiden Lyrical Sniper!" she informed me.

"Nice to meet you," I told her, smiling.

"You really saved our lives," she said wonderingly. "You were amazing. I'm going to practice hard and get stronger, and someday, I promise if you need me _I'll_ be there to save _you_."

* * *

 _April 27th, 2027_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Spokane Police Department_

Jasmine bounced, looking extremely pleased with herself. "I'm so glad my plan worked!"

This couldn't be happening. "What. Plan."

"When the Beacon told me you were being abused, even _molested_ ," she sounded absolutely scandalized, "I almost didn't believe it! But they showed me where you lived, so I snuck in while you were at school and planted a camera in your ceiling light, and it was _true_. So I just had to help."

"You... did... this..." I was numb, beyond any feeling that had a name. "The Beacon... did this..."

Oh wait, I was wrong, there _was_ a name for this feeling. _Rage_. How novel.

"Yeah, they were super helpful," Jasmine said. "You're lucky, Lace! They must really—grhk!"

My hand was around her neck. I was in the middle of a police station, surrounded by armed men and women in uniform, and I didn't care. I lifted Jasmine one-handed, tightening my grip.

Just as the first shouts started up, I _wrenched_ , and felt her neck break. I turned and flung her body into the cops.

"Enjoy your year off, you backstabbing bitch," I muttered, pouting.

"Freeze!"

"Hands up!"

There sure were a lot of guns pointed at me. That was kind of a problem. Not a big one, though.

"Ascendant over these innocent hearts, Gentle Psion Eternal Solace shall raise the sum of all passion to oppose this advent of despair!"

My simulated clothing sublimated, leaving me nude. A shot went off, and I felt the bullet drive into my ribcage. That was fine. I could heal that. I had plenty of sorrow stored up. My raiment slid out over my body, and there weren't any more bullets.

I watched as the Veil seized their minds. A roomful of cops saw me transform right in front of them, revealing not just magic but my own nature and magical girl identity, and the smartest ones keeled over, twitching as the Veil failed to find a path and glitched out. The rest just stood there in a daze, forced into ignorance. I didn't have to lift a finger.

A little black stuffed lion hopped up onto a desk. "Eternal Solace. What have you done, child? This cannot be forgiven."

"You're right," I told the stuffed lion. "This betrayal cannot be forgiven. You promised you would not interfere in my personal life! That was part of our deal!"

"We have not broken the compact," the lion said. "It is your father's life in which we interfered, not yours. But you, you have murdered your comrade. You are oath-breaker! You are forsaken! To the last breath of the last day you shall—"

A bolt of explosive triumph turned the lion into a cloud of fluff. "I quit."

I turned and walked down the hall, stumbling as I felt the connection to my soul break. Well, good. I never needed their protection anyway.

I found Dad, sitting slumped on a hard bench behind steel bars. He looked up, and double-taked when he saw me. "Eelesia? Why are—what're you wearing?"

"Hi, Dad," I greeted, with a perky smile. "We're leaving."

He blinked. "What."

I poked the lock with a red-glowing finger, then yanked the door open. Only the latch broke, making it look like a special effect rather than obvious super-strength. I skipped inside and gave him a hug.

"They're... letting me go?" Dad asked incredulously.

"Not exactly," I told him. I pulled four hexes out of my Pocket. "Here."

"Glowing dice?" Dad said, baffled. "Eelesia, what's going on?"

"Just trust me okay? I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone, and it's not gonna make any sense until we're done, so can you just go with it?" I asked.

"...okay."

"Thanks!"

I uncapped my stolen marker and bent over to draw on the floor. I had a bracer on my left wrist, which I'd added to my raiment myself, which did this all at once on my own mana. But if I used it to take Dad across, the Veil would probably kill him.

Four cores, a hex at each, sixteen lines of power in total. I wanted to be sure this worked on the first try. I assigned runes, then drew channels, added more geometries, assigned runes to those, on and on, building the machine that would open the way.

A rumble of shouting started up, audible through the hallway. I drew faster.

"Okay," I said, finishing the last sloppy mandala. "You need to stand there."

Dad went where I pointed, a large empty circle assigned to, 'Vai-Oum'.

I hopped into the circle with him and tucked myself into his arms, whispering, "You need to say, 'Gix Khz Oum Fis Vai-Oum', out-loud and clearly, with a three-second pause between 'Fis' and 'Vai-Oum'. Can you do that?"

Dad nodded slowly. "I suppose. You are going to explain this, right?"

"I promise, Dad," I whispered. "You just have to do this first. Literally."

Dad shook his head, glancing nervously in the direction of the shouting. "Gix, Khz, Oum, Fis," pause, sharp intake of breath, hands leaving my body to clutch his head, "rrrg, Vai-Oum!"

The aurora swallowed us, and suddenly it was quiet.

* * *

 _January 16th, 2026_  
_Spokane, Washington_  
_Eirian Residence_

I was half asleep when I felt more than saw my bedroom door open.

I rubbed my eyes and looked. Dad stood there, in the doorway, stark naked. His gaze was slack, fixed at a point of nothing on the far wall.

Was he sleepwalking again?

My eyes dipped inevitably downwards, to his throbbing member. The sight of his erection brought me a squirmy warmth of anticipation, along with the vivid memory of what he felt like inside me.

I kinda hoped he _was_ sleepfucking again. It was beautiful, the way I got to feel his love for Mom. After the second time, I knew it wasn't a fluke that nothing bad had happened. He was still my dad, and I had nothing to fear.

I watched him meander around my room for a few minutes, until, finally, he crawled onto the bed. His eyes were closed.

Thinking quickly, I kicked the covers off. I was naked, too, with my panties and tanktop tucked under my pillow. Dad flopped forward, head landing between my thighs, legs dangling off the corner.

I giggled softly.

The sound seemed to encourage him. He inched upwards, nuzzling his face against my inner thigh, getting a gasp out of me as he kissed up my slit, then my belly. I quivered in anticipation as his lips reached my breasts, then as he lined his body up to penetrate me.

I looked up into his eyes... his _clear_ and _entirely focused_ eyes. Eyes shiny with tears, ready to spill.

"Neep!" I squeaked.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he whispered, lucid and poised to fuck me. "...do you want me to stop? Please, just, tell me to stop..."

I shook my head.

"Eelesia, my baby girl," Dad nearly sobbed, sounding utterly broken. "I can't... I can't undo this by myself. I need you to tell me to stop."

I shook my head again. "I trust you, Dad."

I bent my leg across his butt, tugging him in. His tip spread my lower lips and popped into my molten tunnel. Dad let out an agonized groan and bucked forward, filling me to my core. I moaned rapturously.

He buried his face in my neck and pleaded, "Tell me to stop. _Please_."

I wrapped myself around him and loved him. "Never."


	4. CAMERON

_April 27th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I made it back without incident, reasonably sure that Martin and Darrek never knew I was gone. I even managed to get a few hours of restless sleep, but I was excited.

Martin got up well before Darrek did. I jerked awake at the wine of pipes when the shower turned on, and saw the door to Martin's room, open. Yawning, I stretched and sat up, throwing off the blankets to reveal my nude body. I studied my reflection in the black surface of their TV with a smile, marveling at how much that girl really was _me_.

The reflection of the bathroom door opened, and I twisted around to see Martin emerge with a towel around his waist. He was whipcord thin, but his naked torso didn't need any more muscle to be pretty. He was lean and sleek and didn't have any chest hair.

"Gah!" Martin saw me and flinched. "Cameron! Right. Sorry. G'morning! How'd you sleep?"

"Like a little kid the night before the trip to a theme park," I told him wryly. "How'd _you_ sleep?"

"Freaky dreams," he mused. He shook his head and smiled. "You're excited?"

I twisted up to my knees, letting my bare breasts bobble over the back of the sofa at him as I rested my arms on the frame. "I want to move forward with my life, and this... I feel like I was meant for this."

Tingles of anticipation raced over my skin where his eyes roamed, stiffening my nipples. After discovering my raiment, I didn't really need _practice_ to feel comfortable in the nude. The reflex to cover myself seemed to have burned itself out last night with Eelesia. But I was still new at being sexy, at Being A Naked Girl at other people, and I wanted to enjoy it before it became routine.

"I'm glad," Martin told me. "Lemme get dressed and we'll talk over breakfast."

"Aw, do you _have_ to?" I asked impishly as I leaned forward with a big grin and raised my hips, wiggling my ass.

His towel twitched. Hah. Who would've thought simply being in a good mood could substitute for actual skill at flirting? It was kind of surreal to see myself acting like this, though. It was weird to feel _seductive_.

Martin laughed, a little nervously. "Well, I don't _have_ to, I suppose. But I was gonna let you borrow something from our costume stock and take you to the cafe again."

"Oh." I shrugged. "Well, okay."

Martin retreated to his room and emerged a few minutes later in jeans and a sleeve-shirt. Getting up, I bounced and jiggled my way over to him and presented him with the shiny plastic card I pulled out of cookiespace.

"By the way, look what I found last night," I said, holding up the brand new 'fake' ID I'd acquired in the Crossroads for his inspection. "See, I'm eighteen. There you go."

"Oh. This is good!" Martin said earnestly. "I was worried we'd get stuck on this, but I guess we got lucky, huh?"

I gave him an ironic smile. "Yeah."

"Let me grab the forms, one sec," he said.

Once he came back, he took me upstairs to the top floor. Still naked myself, I followed him through to the end of a hallway where there was a small room occupied mostly by racks of clothes arranged in a square.

"Go ahead and grab anything," Martin told me. "It's all clean and none of it is private property."

I slipped through the gap into the interior of the square, and browsed. I did actually look, but when nothing especially caught my eye in the first ten seconds, I went with my original plan.

Moving so the racks obscured me from Martin, I activated Style. Flexible kneeboots, thigh-high fishnets, pleated miniskirt, and a tiny multi-strapped crop-top with extreme cleavage, all in black. Plus a shiny dark green studded belt and a matching green thong.

After a moment, I came out to where Martin could see me.

"That was fast," he said. "...you look good."

"Thanks," I said, twirling around for him. "Serious question, though."

"Yeah?"

"Do these fishnets undermine my absolute territory?" I asked, running a finger along the edge of my simulated skirt.

Martin started at my legs for a long moment. "I'm gonna say no. Your thighs look very tantalizing."

"Thanks. I thought so, but I wasn't sure," I told him. "Shall we?"

* * *

Martin fed me, had me fill out an info sheet, sign a waiver, and snapped a photo of my ID to go with it all. With that taken care of, he made a call to someone named, "Cece," and set up my screening.

"Cece does all our testing for us," Martin told me once he hung up. "She's all set to see you tomorrow morning. Once she clears you, we'll schedule your first official shoot for some time next week."

"That long?" I mumbled to myself.

Martin heard me and rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "I really do hope you're still this eager a month from now."

"I'm sure I'll calm down some when I'm not drowning in irony," I deadpanned.

"Drowning in irony?" he asked.

I was a nerd about all things sexual, walking around in this wet-dream body as a sex-themed magical girl warrior, ready and willing to spread my legs for anyone who so much as looked my way. And _I was still a virgin_. I'd never even been _touched_.

"I'm all theory, and no practice," I sighed. "I know this is what I want to do, long term, but until someone actually _fucks_ me, I don't think I'm really going to believe, deep down, that I _can_."

"Oh," Martin said. He opened his mouth to say more, then closed it again. "Well, if it means anything, I'm rooting for you."

"Thanks," I replied dryly.

"That's just the official shoots, though," Martin said. "We can also set you up with a profile where you can post vlog content at your own pace. You're certainly not _limited_ to our major releases."

That gave me an idea, actually. "Hm," I said half-seriously. " _Cameron Learns to Take a Dick_ , a six-part series featuring a magic dildo. _Slut Lessons for Cameron_ , a three-part special guest-starring Martin Grey."

Martin laughed. "That's the idea, yes."

"I think I can make that work, then," I said, giggling.

* * *

We got back to the apartment just as Darrek shambled out of his room moaning about coffee. I greeted him and he leered at me, gave me a thumbs up, and stumbled into the bathroom with his steaming mug.

"Is there anything else you need me to do today?" I asked Martin, dissolving my kneeboots while he wasn't looking.

Martin shook his head. "Nope. Make yourself at home." He gestured at the entertainment center. "Watch a show, relax, today's gonna be slow. Just keep it relatively quiet so Darrek can schmooze."

"Sure," I agreed, watching him watch me as I bent over and slid the fishnets down my legs. I really hoped I never got tired of people looking at me like that. "I might go for a walk later, but before that... _Horny Virgin Reacts to Lewd &Clued_?"

Martin suddenly grinned. "You wanna do a reaction video?"

"It was just an idea," I said warily.

"No that's an awesome idea," Martin told me, giggling. "It'll be good if you're more familiar with our content, and it's not a bad way to introduce you on the site either. Hold on, I'll get a tripod. Do you need to borrow a camera?"

I smiled at him. "No, I've got my tablet. Thanks."

He went and got a tripod. I set up the camera app on my tablet and clipped it to the tripod. I made sure the lighting settings were right, then I framed the middle of the couch, making sure the angle wouldn't let my knee or my arm block the view of anything important.

"Have you done anything like this before?" Martin wondered.

"No. I've thought about it, though," I told him.

Martin turned on the TV and pulled up the _Lewd &Clued_ website before glancing back at me. "You've got good instincts. That's a good angle in this light, and you've got it framed just right."

"I told you I was a film geek," I reminded him, smirking.

I kept the remainder of my simulated outfit on. I was definitely going to end up naked, but I figured it'd look more authentic if I didn't start that way. I tapped record and sat down.

I looked at Martin. "I like the site design."

"I'm proud of it," he admitted.

I giggled. "Alright then, what're you going to show me?"

"How about something I directed?" Martin asked, hopeful.

"Absolutely," I said, grinning. "Are you actually _in_ any of those?"

Martin scrolled for a moment. "This one."

I wiggled excitedly. "Do it. Play it."

The thumbnail image grew to full-screen and presented the standard disclaimers. I settled in to watch, already feeling myself up a little. Martin put the wireless keyboard down and flopped into one of the armchairs. At the first moan of the intro sequence and site logo, I glanced over at him, flushing slightly.

Settling in to watch some porn, with the intention of masturbating, when I was alone and in private—that was very familiar. Doing it in someone else's living room, while he sat there and watched me—that was as strange as the first thing was familiar, but, in a good way.

A really good way.

The first scene came on, and I settled in to react, and 'react', to Martin's porn.

* * *

 _April 28th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I stared up at the ceiling in the dark quiet of the hours between late and early. I'd listened for any suspicious sounds, but I would've been very surprised if the probably-a-succubus actually came back to rape Martin again.

The real reason I wasn't asleep was that I wanted to play with my magic. Gently, I kicked the blankets off of my nude body and sat up. I hissed out my transformation aria as quietly as I could. My soul turned inside-out and I welcomed my raiment as it appeared like fragments in a kaleidoscope.

Even though I'd spent half the day fingering and then fisting myself on camera, my body was quick to warm in anticipation. " _Emerald Bliss!_ "

It was simply unconscionable that I hadn't fucked myself with Emerald Bliss, yet. I was a _little_ worn out from my day of 'reacting' to porn, so I wasn't going to get too ambitious, but I had to at least try it.

I watched the four orbs orbit my hand, glowing softly in the darkness. I shifted Emerald Bliss into its phallic form and ran my hand over it. Smooth, hard, warm, and segmented. It was about ten inches long and a little over two inches across at the bulges.

I sat on my hands and spread my legs. Controlled by my thoughts, Emerald Bliss hovered down between my thighs and pointed itself at my pussy. Slowly advancing, it pressed into my vulva and my flesh yielded and the head popped inside me. The next segment pressed, then popped inside me as well. I kept going, taking the third bulge, and when Emerald Bliss didn't hit bottom, I let it keep moving until the last bulge stretched me and disappeared inside.

With Emerald Bliss only visible as an emerald light shining faintly out of my vagina, I held it still, savoring the fullness. It felt kind of weird because I was still in telekinetic control and Emerald Bliss held its position in space, refusing to move with me when I tried to squirm.

A mellow smile on my face, I relaxed while my hips assumed a slow, languid roll, and thought about the other reason I'd stayed awake.

The structure in my head was very different while I was transformed. With an active raiment, the nature of an _innate spell_ was that of a discrete, self-contained superpower. My spellshards were still there, but the concept space where I fitted them together was locked off behind the channels that held my current spells permanently aligned with my mind and mana.

I had three. There was room in my soul for six.

This aspect of my magic had been hidden while my raiment remained dormant. In that state, I had to cast directly out of the assembly concept space by manually aligning each spell every time, so I never noticed. I technically had more than my three equipped spells, but the extras were just my early attempts at Perfect Incarnation, failures which were at least coherent enough to count as valid.

Carefully, I dismissed my raiment, smiling when I succeeded in preventing Emerald Bliss from vanishing with it. It did feel like something suddenly 'let go' of the ridged phallus inside me. I could still control it if I concentrated, but otherwise it went inert.

I frowned thoughtfully and flopped back in my seat. Three spells. Three distinct superpowers.

Planar Shield, which created an impenetrable hexagonal surface at a fixed point and rotation in space relative to my environment.

Perfect Incarnation, which created two opposing force scaffolds, one to contain conjured biomass within the map of optimal bio-structure, one to expel extraneous matter from the same map, then conjured onto that bio-structure map in self-referencing cycles contained within a meta-cycle for each tissue type. In other words, it healed either myself or the humanoid I had the most surface area in contact with, very thoroughly.

Poison Purge, which canceled magic in the map of not-part-of-bio-structure, then erased all biomass or organic compounds in that map. It also required me to touch my target, and only handled one target at a time. Now that I looked at it again, it really was a clumsy hack.

It occurred to me to wonder about the deeper implications of having access to my own personal Superpower Design Engine: Reinforcement Edition. According to Eelesia, most magical girls were gated off from theirs by their patron, who presumably filled out a magical girl's roster of spells to suit their own ends.

I didn't think Perfect Incarnation was _that_ clever, but apparently even most Reinforcement Mages like me didn't have anything like it. Why not? Healing was apparently our _thing_. The explanation simply couldn't be that I was _better at it_ than the patrons. That wouldn't make any sense at all.

I shook my head. Useless speculation.

Poison Purge really was a clumsy hack. I bet patrons never gave their magical girls spells that crappy. Which raised another concern. I might be at a serious disadvantage if I ended up relying on a subpar spell because I didn't put in the design time. That wasn't something most other magical girls had to worry about. And wouldn't a patron know better than me which spells I'd actually need to face my most salient threats, whatever those turned out to be?

I shook off that line of thought, too.

I focused on my spellshards. Two pairs which added up to a comprehensive biology scan. I could use those without a spell because they didn't do anything except generate information. The rest were either definition builders or effect applicators.

Every spell had two mana costs. An activation cost determined by complexity, and a bandwidth cost determined by energy throughput. I didn't have an expendable pool of mana but rather a bounded region of some conceptual source-space. To use a bad analogy, mana was the wire, not the electricity.

I set myself to the task of designing a replacement for Poison Purge.

I had an idea of what I wanted, a sense of what my spellshards did, and a feel for what my mana capacity could support. It still took me almost two hours, during which I almost forgot I still had Emerald Bliss stuffed in my pussy.

" _Cleansing Aura!_ " I finally intoned, aligning the spell and bumping off Poison Purge at the same time.

Comprehensive pro-biotic decontamination in a variable-radius sphere centered on my body. That's what I had, now. I could walk into a room and cure every infectious disease, every allergy, every drug-overdose, poisoning, bug bite and rash, while I did nothing but stand there and look sexy.

I could walk into a bar and render the whole place sober in a moment. I tipped over and buried my face in a pillow to muffle my hysterical giggles. I closed my eyes and clenched my vaginal muscles around Emerald Bliss, and it was blissful.

Before I knew it, I was waking up in the morning, my mystic dildo having folded back into my soul while I slept.

* * *

 _April 28th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_North Nob Hill_

I checked the route on my tablet one last time and confirmed that what I saw for real matched the image on the screen. A little corner park with a small red gazebo at one end and generic playground equipment at the other, surrounded by a charmingly mismatched variety of two-story and three-story residential buildings.

I stuck my tablet into cookiespace and made my way up the narrow street until I found the right house. I rang the doorbell.

A tiny blonde woman in an actual white lab coat of all things opened the door and chirped, "Hi! Are you Cameron?"

"Yeah. Hi."

"Well, come in, come on, this way," she said, beckoning me into the townhouse, which was cozy and clean but kind of cluttered.

She looked familiar, but I wasn't sure how or from where. "You're Cece?"

"Yep, that's me," she agreed. "Cecelia Boxie, nice to meet you."

I blinked. I knew that name, and now I knew where I'd seen her. "I saw you on Vanessa Strawn's webshow! You _invented_ the world's first maglev dildo machine."

Cecelia grinned proudly. "Ooh, you've _heard_ of me. Yep! It was I that brought the joy of fucking-machines to the common gal. According to my math and I may in fact be personally responsible for over nine thousand orgasms every day!"

I laughed. Cecelia was the cutest mad scientist. She had to be affecting that deliberately, but it suited her.

"You watch Vanessa's show?" Cecelia asked.

I nodded, blushing faintly as I admitted, "Yeah, she's kind of my hero."

"Oh really? Why's that?" Cecelia asked, grinning.

"The way she talks about sex work is kind of amazing?" I offered. "And like, remember that brothel in Concord that the police raided last year? Dozens of girls arrested, abused, their livelihoods destroyed, some of them raped by the cops themselves, and Vanessa's show and crowdfunding effort was the only reason those girls got anything resembling justice."

Cecelia giggled. "Yeah, she is pretty impressive sometimes. I'm totally going to tell her you're a fan."

Lacking a coherent response to that, I followed Cecelia down a hallway past some stairs and into a room that was half medical lab and half digital machine shop. Very literally half and half. There was even a line painted down the middle of the laminated floor. Both sides of the room looked pretty impressive.

"So how do you know Martin, anyway?" I asked.

"Oh, I've been screening models for _Lewd &Clued_ since they started out," Cecelia told me. "I'm a registered nurse, among other things. Did you know that Vanessa was their first model?"

I stopped and stared. "No, I didn't. Does she still...?"

"Yep!" Cecelia chirped as she went over to a shiny metal work table. "Martin and Darrek have been our go-to guys ever since Darrek bought that big fancy studio. Both of us are pretty much fixtures there by now."

"Both of you?" I asked. "You and Vanessa do scenes together?"

Cecelia laughed. "On _and_ off camera. We live together and we only have one bed."

"Oh," I said weakly. I was standing in Vanessa Strawn's house. _Oh for fuck's sake, stop acting like such a fangirl._

"Anyway, let's get you cleared for action, huh?" Cecelia suggested, pulling on a pair of gloves.

I shook myself. "Yeah. What do you need?"

"Nothing much. I just need to prick your finger for some blood, and then I'll need to stick _this_ ," she held up a cotton swab in a retractable plastic tube, "in your vagina for a few seconds."

None of that was unexpected, so I just nodded, but, "so you really can do this all yourself right here? You don't need to send me or my samples to a clinic somewhere?"

"Ugh," Cecelia replied, rolling her eyes and making a disgusted face. "Don't get me started on the ossified medical establishment. The public clinics still use cell cultures! Cell cultures! It takes them _days_ to do a test and if you've got something obscure they won't even _check_ for it!"

I offered a smile. "Well okay then."

"Right!" Cecelia went back to cheerful in an instant and grabbed one of her medical gadgets. "Put your pinkie finger in this."

It didn't hurt, but I definitely felt the prick. Cecelia took the gadget, popped something out of it which she slid into a tray in a bigger machine which was hooked to a laptop with a USB cable.

"What kind of test do you use?" I asked curiously.

"I do a full parallel sequencing, and match the read against a genetic whitelist," Cecelia explained. "If you've got anything in you that's not supposed to be there, we'll know in just a few minutes. But first, here, put your foot up on this."

She kicked a step stool over to me, and I obligingly put my foot up on it. I'd wondered if she'd ask me to undress, but my conjured skirt was short enough that she decided not to bother, apparently. Crouching down, Cecelia hooked her fingers through the crotch of my conjured panties and pulled them aside quickly and efficiently.

My breath caught in my chest for half a moment. She only barely grazed my labia with her knuckles, and she was even wearing gloves, but it was literally the first and only physical contact that region of my body had ever received from another person, and the sensation was startling. She used her fingers to spread me so she could insert the swab, and I almost flinched.

"Okay, and that's sample number two," Cecelia told me, tugging my panties back into place. She popped up and turned to her equipment. "All done. If you don't want to stand there awkwardly while I work you can have a seat in the den. This'll take fifteen minutes, tops."

"Coow." I swallowed. "Cool. Thanks."

I left Cecelia to do her thing and had a seat in the den as suggested.

* * *

A short while later, I heard the front door open. A moment after that, a young woman walked into the room dressed in yoga pants and a sports bra. She was beautiful in that cute girl-next-door way, with skin like warm milk chocolate and a pixie cut hairstyle, dyed red.

Vanessa Strawn halted in place when she saw me and regarded me curiously. "Hi. Are you the new girl?"

At first I felt a little like the deer in the headlights, but as her gaze wandered to the valley of my cleavage and along the undersides of my creamy thighs with open appreciation, it was like all the world went quiet and a calm confidence replaced my nervous tension. I stood up and offered my hand.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm Cameron. Hi."

"Oh!" Smiling warmly, Vanessa took my hand and brought my knuckles to her lips. "Welcome, Cameron," she said earnestly. "I'm Vanessa."

"Yeah, I know," I admitted wryly. "I recognize you."

Vanessa giggled, keeping hold of my hand. "Ah. So you do have some idea of what you're getting yourself into. I'm glad. Making porn can be a great experience if you're getting into it for the right reasons."

"I'm a pansexual aromantic introvert with creative ambitions and a generalized hatred of sexual repression," I noted. "Does that count?"

"It'll do," Vanessa laughed. "When I started out, all I knew was that I wanted to see my own sexy fun times up next to all the other porn vids on my dashboard."

I smiled, ignoring a pang of envy. "I think it's different for me, y'know, virginal introvert, but I can vividly imagine the feeling."

The earnest smile dropped off Vanessa's face, replaced by skeptical curiosity. "How virginal are we talking, here?"

"My non-solo experience is, absolute zero," I clarified uncomfortably.

"Why's that?" Vanessa asked with curious sincerity. "You're positively _mouth-watering_. You must've had offers."

I snorted, because to answer that without lying or tripping over the Veil, I had to bend the truth into a _knot_. "I was a late bloomer, and I didn't have any friends. I suppose it's possible some of my peers' verbal harassment... wasn't. But I'll probably never know."

"What do you mean about verbal harassment?" Vanessa asked intently.

I sighed. "I mean, in my school it was a popular game to pretend to flirt with me, and laugh at me when I believed it, or get really offended that I didn't believe it once I stopped being gullible. There could've been genuine offers mixed in with that but how would I've known if there were?"

Vanessa stared at me for a long moment in horrified fascination, then spun around and shouted into the hallway, "Cece!"

"Yeah?" came the shouted reply.

"She clean?" Vanessa shouted.

"Yeah!" Cecelia shouted from her lab.

"Good," Vanessa said to me, taking my other hand in hers. "Because you, Cameron, are coming upstairs with me, right now, and getting your brains fucked out."

"I... am?"

"Yep! That was the saddest fucking thing I've ever heard and I'm not letting you leave here a virgin," Vanessa declared lightly as she practically dragged me towards the stairs. "Consider this your orientation program!"

The tension on my arm made me abruptly aware that I was _significantly_ stronger than her, even though we were close to the same size. But resisting her was beyond imagining. Dreamlike, I trailed behind her as she led me up to a cozy master bedroom containing an unmade bed with off-white satin sheets.

I recognized the room, too, and it wasn't a room I'd ever thought I'd actually set foot in. "This is unreal."

Vanessa grinned at me in a gentle way. "You don't need to be nervous. I'll take good care of you, promise."

"I know you will," I said truthfully. "This room, this bed, with you. I'm honored."

"Awww," Vanessa cooed. "You're sweet."

I giggled sheepishly.

Vanessa dropped my hand and swaggered backwards, kicking off her shoes. With one quick move she removed her sports bra, and with another she peeled off her yoga pants and socks. For half a second, it was like my brain forgot _not_ to expect there to be a screen between me and her gorgeous nude body. It was almost disconcerting when she penetrated my personal space, allowing me to feel the warmth radiating off her skin and breathe in air laced with her scent.

Here. In front of me. Close enough to touch. Looking at _me_.

In that disconcerting moment I knew in my bones that this was an experience I wanted to pass on to as many people as possible. If I wound up having fans, I wanted to do this for as many of them as I could. I had to find a way.

Vanessa's hands settled on my midriff, on my hips between the hem of my crop top and the waist of my skirt. I shuddered at the warmth, the intimacy, of even so simple a touch. Her hands caressed my skin, stoking shivers of arousal to spread over my body. She pulled, and our breasts touched through the simulated fabric of my top, and then her lips made contact with mine.

I moaned into her mouth, leaning into the kiss as my mind exploded with all new sensation. My hands glided up the smooth mocha skin of her arms and down her back. Every bit of her felt so good to touch that my hands tried to go everywhere at once, but I got an encouraging moan from her when I lingered on her ass, groping and squeezing as hard as I dared.

Vanessa pushed my shirt up to free my breasts, removing the barrier of cotton from between her breasts and mine. Her hands roamed down my front and under the hem of my skirt. I dissolved my thong with a thought, so nothing separated her fingers from my bare nethers.

Vanessa broke the kiss, fingertips gliding along my drooling slit. "Ooh, no panties? How daring! With a skirt this short you're showing off this wet pussy every time you bend over, huh?"

I curled into her touch, and blurted out my first random thought as an explanation. "It's easier to look away than to see through clothing."

"What?" Vanessa laughed.

I jolted from a spike of pleasure as she rubbed over my clit, easily finding the spot tucked down at the bottom of my hood between my plump outer lips. "I, um."

Her gliding fingers curled up and thrust into me before I could complete the thought, while she used the ridge of her palm to keep pressure on my clit. She caught and held my gaze, watching my face with eager delight as she made me cum. I clutched at her, gasping into her neck and trembling. My hips moved with the spasms of orgasmic pleasure, out of my control as pulsating bliss overrode my nerves.

"Wow, that was fast," Vanessa giggled.

I laughed, because she sounded _impressed_. It was still a little jarring to be reminded that I was now on the other side of that particular double-standard.

Vanessa drew her fingers out of me and licked them, teasing. "Okay, get those clothes off. I promised you a ravishing and that was barely foreplay."

I nodded and practically tore my conjured outfit off. I _did_ tear off the flexible kneeboots. I could not be bothered to figure out all the buckles and they were whole and undamaged again by the time they hit the floor anyway.

As soon as my clothes were out of the way Vanessa pressed against me again, warmth and skin and softness, so vivid and good. This time, I probed between her legs. The slippery heat of her folds parted around my fingers and I stroked, feeling along her slit.

Vanessa squirmed encouragingly against my hand and grabbed onto one of my breasts. She lifted it, pushing up against my chest, and kneaded it. The way she massaged my nipple sent jolts of renewed arousal bolting down between my legs.

"It's fucking amazing these are natural," Vanessa said admiringly. "I know some girls who'd kill for tits like yours. You're bigger than me and don't sag at all."

"I know right? I got lucky," I agreed. "All the more reason to share 'em with the world."

Vanessa laughed. "That's the spirit. If the boys have their way, you'll be giving so many titjobs."

"I like yours too," I told her. I brought both hands up to her own lush handfuls and ran my thumbs reverently over her nipples as my fingers sank into her pliant softness. While not nearly as big as mine, her breasts were _actually_ natural, and still very shapely.

"Your skin is even more ridiculous," Vanessa breathed as she ran her hands over my naked form. "How is it so flawless?"

It was less than a week old. That probably had _something_ to do with it. I just shook my head. "Lucky again, I guess."

"No shit," Vanessa giggled. "You know, I was kinda weirded out when the boys said they literally picked you up off the street, but damn girl, if anybody's worth trying that..."

Vanessa gave my ass a punctuating smack, and I shivered as she moved on to a thorough grope. I returned my hand to her crotch and she sighed as my fingers slid inside a slippery sheath of wet heat.

"I really didn't need much convincing," I said with more than a little pride in my voice.

"I choose to take that as a good sign," Vanessa laughed, clenching around my fingers.

She turned us and pushed me towards her bed, holding onto my hips to position me. I let go of her and flopped back onto her sheets, with my feet still on the floor. This was her show, so I went where she led me.

"Okay, pay attention," Vanessa said as she knelt between my legs and grinned. "This part is important."

My core clenched in heated anticipation as she spread my outer lips with her thumbs. She kissed her way along my folds, teasing me with the lightest of licks, then she buried her face in my cleft and her tongue attacked my clit with a fury.

I barely had time to shudder, gasp, and buck up into her before her hand moved and I felt her fingers glide into my molten center. I made sure to pay attention, even as raw pleasure tore through my nerves. She seemed to be using a lot more than just the tip of her tongue, and her fingers inside me stroked up at the same time, like she was trying to scoop me into her mouth.

That was all the detail I gleaned before the stimulation ripped an orgasm out of my body that was so powerful I actually screamed. Vanessa kept her mouth locked onto my pussy and didn't stop until she'd dragged my orgasm out to the point I was pretty sure it counted as more than one.

"Holy... fuck..." I panted.

"Aw, you didn't squirt?" Vanessa said cheerfully. "Usually when I do that to a girl who cums as easy as you, she squirts."

"I never cum that good," I informed her breathlessly. "You probably got close, if I can at all."

"Something to look forward to." With a smug shrug, Vanessa pulled her fingers out of me and gently stroked my vulva. "Your pussy is so smooth! This isn't a wax job."

"I got the gene-mod," I lied, because really that's what I _would_ have done if I didn't have Style.

"Ooh!" Vanessa exclaimed. "So did I. It's great."

"I know," I admitted, with a silly smile which I graciously allowed to occupy my face. "I learned about it from your show."

"Ah. That's nice to hear," she said approvingly.

Vanessa rose and climbed onto the bed. She crawled up my body until she reached my face, and kissed me. I kind of expected the soft feel and intimate motion of her lips to be accompanied by some kind of distinctive taste, but it wasn't actually that noticeable. Then she broke the kiss and kept crawling. I kissed her thigh as it came within reach, but she didn't stop to sit on my face like I half expected her to.

I twisted around to see as she climbed off the other side of the bed and went to open a drawer. The drawer produced a detailed lavender dildo of about porn-average size. She kept her eyes on me, assessing, as she tapped her lower lip with the tip of the toy in a thoughtful gesture.

"You're not the kind of girl who's shy about penetration, are you?" Vanessa asked.

I shook my head. "I'm really not."

"Excellent," she drawled cutely. "Scooch up."

I pivoted and stretched out the right way around, with my head on the pillow. Joining me on the bed, Vanessa nudged my legs apart and crawled up between them. She lowered herself onto me, laying flush, and _oh my gods_.

The sensations of her skin, her warmth, and her weight, all added together at once into a kind of pleasure that I hadn't consciously understood my longing for until that moment. It was overwhelming in a way I hadn't even considered, soothing something deep and primal inside me. My vision actually fuzzed out for a moment and I made this moaning whimpery sound that was impossible to hold in.

"Huh?" Vanessa murmured in confusion. "I haven't even started yet..."

I'd had a glimmer of this, earlier, but I hadn't comprehended the depth of it. I giggled breathlessly. "Like this... I don't know if... I'd even notice..."

Vanessa's confusion gave way to a gentle knowing look. "Ah. I should've guessed. Skin hunger. You're not just a virgin. You're touch-starved, too." She sighed and kissed me softly. "Drat. I did this all out of order."

"It's fine," I breathed. "Touch-starved?"

Vanessa peered down at me. "When's the last time you had prolonged skin contact with another human being who wasn't related to you?"

I blinked, and thought back. "Never."

"Have you had any skin contact at all since puberty?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't think so," I told her, trying to remember a counter-example.

Vanessa nodded and tucked her face into my neck as she murmured, "Humans are made to touch each other. We have a primordial, bone-deep need for it. A silent, reflex-level affirmation that goes with the caress of skin to skin." She raised her head to look at me, lips quirking. "And for some of us, it is very much not a _platonic_ feeling, but that doesn't mean we need it any less. I'm sorry."

My mind was still a little fuzzy, but after a moment's consideration I shook my head. "No. I needed to know this. I'd kind of just assumed sexual frustration was _simple_ , but you're right, this is part of it, and it's a part of it that... can't be addressed with orgasms."

"Right," Vanessa said, looking at me funny. She shook her head a little and kissed me. "Anyway, we can just stay like this for a while if that's what you need."

"Okay," I muttered, belatedly remembering that I did in fact have hands which could explore the expanses of Vanessa's skin which weren't currently pressed against me. Skin was the best thing in the universe.

* * *

"Knock knock!"

My eyes flew open, startled. I caught sight of Cecelia framed in the doorway and had to fight down some left-over and hilariously inappropriate instinct to _close all my browser tabs right now_ , so to speak. I must have really zoned out.

Vanessa lifted her head and grinned at Cecelia. "Hey, baby. She all set?"

"Yep," Cecelia chirped. "I took the liberty of adding your status to the registry, Cameron." She held up a paper card. "Here's your account number and login info. I already forwarded your all-clear to the boys."

I only had half an idea what she was talking about, but I just nodded. Looking at her properly, I blinked when I noticed that while she still wore her white lab coat, her legs were bare now. Cecelia put the card down and flounced over to the bed, beaming.

"What d'ya think, Cece?" Vanessa asked lightly. "Wanna help me break in the new girl?"

"It does seem like she's done cuddling," Cecelia observed. "She's been humping you since I came in."

With a start, I realized my hips were moving, grinding my pussy up against Vanessa's mound. I almost froze, but instead I made myself grind up harder. I _was_ feeling less skin-starved, for the moment.

Vanessa leaned in and kissed me. "Feeling better?" she asked softly.

"Yeah."

"Cece, get the strap-on," Vanessa instructed with a grin.

While Cecelia went to go do that, Vanessa lifted herself up and turned around, swinging her hips into place over my head. Sinking back down, she covered me with her warm body, breasts pooling over my belly. Her glistening vulva swayed in front of my face, perfectly positioned for me to lift my head and nuzzle, soft, gooey, and hot.

I jolted, reflexively mashing my face further into Vanessa's pussy, when her tongue probed at my clit without warning. I slid my hands up her thighs, caressing her ass as I explored her folds with my lips and tongue. It was impossible to keep my hands still with all of her best curves in easy reach.

Vanessa's skillful tongue drove me towards orgasm, rapidly pushing me closer, while I'd barely started on her. I had a lesson to apply and I really wanted to be good at this. I drew back to look at her gorgeous cleft for a moment before I dove in again. I knew the theory, I knew all the theory, but a lot of it was reading her responses, chasing her reactions. The only way to get good at that was practice.

But maybe I could cheat.

Using my magical senses, I watched Vanessa's nervous system as I poked at the hard nub of her clit with my tongue. I pressed in, licking and rubbing, listening for her moans but also watching her nerve signals to see if I could figure out which nerves carried the sexual pleasure signals.

I got a pretty good idea pretty quickly, and then all I had to do was adjust my technique until those nerves lit up the brightest. I was developing all kinds of new and interesting muscle-memory today.

Vanessa still made me cum first, clenching and bucking beneath her as her tongue massaged my clit and her fingers pumped inside me, making me writhe with the intensity.

As soon as I recovered, I wrapped my arms around Vanessa's hips and buried myself in her pussy again.

"Ohhhhhh, _fuck_ , she learns fast," Vanessa moaned. "Yeah just like that!"

Cecelia giggled, and I opened my eyes to find her naked and directly above me, poised to stick a red strap-on dildo into Vanessa's ass. She didn't, though. She just knelt there and stroked the dildo while she watched me eat Vanessa out.

"Fuck. Fuck. Like that. Like that! Fuck!" Vanessa broke, twitched and seized, shaking and trembling on top of me as I licked and licked, doing my best to track a wildly moving target.

With my magical senses, I could see the whole orgasm play out from start to finish within her body, which made it really easy to figure out how long I ought to keep going. When I finally stopped, Vanessa went limp on top of me.

I let my head fall back, and that seemed to be what Cecelia was waiting for. She angled the red dildo down and prodded my lips with it.

"Open up," Cecelia commanded.

I only hesitated for a moment before I opened my mouth like a good slut and sucked on her fake cock. Cecelia thrust gently between my lips, but just when I started getting into it, she pulled out and hopped off the bed.

I watched her skip around to the other side and crawl up between my legs. Vanessa rose up and met her in a hot, sloppy kiss, before she sat up the rest of the way and brought my legs with her. The result was that I could see Cecelia in front of me, through a tunnel made of my breasts, Vanessa's legs and pussy, and my thighs.

"Administering one devirginization! Stat!" Cecelia announced.

Vanessa laughed. "Just get over here."

Cecelia moved into position and Vanessa backed up. This time, she did sit on my face. I felt her hug my legs to her chest, breasts squishing around my shins with my feet on her shoulders.

"Heeee, she's so flexible!" I heard Cecelia say. "She's got those hips that look awesomely lewd bent over with her legs tied together. She's all fuckable even closed up tight."

"I know," Vanessa crowed, stroking my thighs. "I can't wait to see what—ahh!"

I interrupted her by rolling my tongue over her clit, because what else was I going to do with a face-full of pussy. Hearing Cecelia giggle, I felt the rubbery tip of her dildo prod at my opening and I lifted my hips to help it slide in. Not that it needed much help.

As the dildo filled me, Vanessa moaned and ground herself harder against my face. I kept moving my tongue and ran my hands up and down her backside.

Cecelia shifted around until she got a good angle, and then she slid her fake cock out and back in, a steady stroke that got faster and harder as she went. She leaned forward to brace herself on my thighs and pounded into me, her dildo's straps stinging with each body-shaking slap of hips to apex.

It was _so fucking good_.

With a shaking gasp and a muffled cry, I was cumming. Rammed over the edge, I clenched up and convulsed, forgetting entirely what I was doing to Vanessa. Wrapped up and held down and fucked, white-hot pleasure raged out of my core and set my whole body alight.

A second wave of electric bliss followed the first, then a third. I lost count after that, drowning in the ecstasy.

Finally, motion and pleasure halted, but my body went on twitching blissfully for some time. Vanessa had fallen forward, my legs trapped between her and Cecelia.

"Godamn," Cecelia panted, sweating profusely. "Does she ever stop?"

"Seriously. I'm almost jealous," Vanessa giggled. "We're going to be late."

"Huh?" Cecelia drew back, and I whimpered as her strapped-on dildo slipped out of me. "Oh crap!"

"Go shower," Vanessa said. "I've got the aftercare."

"Right!" Cecelia ran into the bathroom.

Vanessa released my legs and turned around, draping herself over me. She dropped a soft kiss on my lips and smiled.

"So, that happened," I commented.

"Yep," Vanessa agreed. "How do you feel, Cameron?"

How _did_ I feel? Like I'd just had a chain of orgasms lasting a small eternity, yeah, but besides that. I felt... centered. Assured. And ready to go on being me without reservations.

"Exactly how I thought I would," I told her.

Vanessa raised an eyebrow at me. "And how's that?"

"Validated," I admitted.

Vanessa giggled. "That works."

I nuzzled her with a happy sigh. "Thank you for this."

"It was fun," she said. "You've got talent. I'm really looking forward to working with you, Cameron."

I grinned stupidly. "Likewise."

"So hey," Vanessa said. "Do you want the video? My cameras were actually on this whole time."

I blinked. "Wait, what?"

"I recorded this whole thing," Vanessa told me, with a gentle expression. "Sorry I didn't say anything. I always record myself, but I'll delete this one if you want..."

I shook my head, hard. "That's... no, I'm glad you didn't say anything. I'm actually really glad you captured my genuine experience and stuff, you know? I want that preserved. Can you send me the file?"

"Files," Vanessa corrected. "I've got six cameras in here," she said, pointing them out for me. "But, yes, of course."

"Neat," I told her, smirking. "I'll edit something together for my _Lewd &Clued_ profile. How often do the lonely masses get to see a girl _for real_ lose her virginity in a lesbian three-way?"

Amused, Vanessa kissed away my smirk and nuzzled me. "Do you mind if I brag to the boys that I had you before they did?"

I snorted helplessly. "No. But if you do, I'm gonna feel the need to rush over and have a three-way with _them_ right now, and I've got another errand I need to take care of first."

"Oh well," Vanessa playfully sighed. "I'll find some way to contain myself, then."


	5. CAMERON

_April 28th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Coastlands Sigma Intersect_

I turned a corner, and without feeling the shift in gravity, found myself walking at a right angle to my previous orientation. All around me, humans and not-so-humans passed me by, hurrying, or ambling along with friends, or lurking in dark corners. And among them, another class of being, clearly separate for all that they mingled freely—the magical girls.

I wasn't even in my raiment, and it was still pretty obvious which side I belonged to.

Magical banners hung in the air like holograms, displayed over collections of interior space which had been claimed by various magical businesses. They were far less numerous than shop fronts in a real city, probably because the mixed and matched reflections _of_ real city that made up this reality didn't leave as much usable area as they appeared to.

The whole region was very much an unregulated bazaar, but the more entrenched businesses looked pretty legitimate. I saw and made note of a bounty office, a mana refinery which also served as a currency exchange, and a boutique advertising soul module installation.

The patrons stayed out of sight. I caught a glimpse of a Puchuu in the bounty office, but I decided not to resort to accosting random strangers with questions, just yet.

That's why I went back to the kiosk where I'd gotten my new ID, to acost a slightly-less-random stranger with a question. The guy in the booth looked mostly normal, an average twenty-something, but his eyes had multiple pupils and he wore a badge with the symbol of the Ebon Mint on it. And he was helpful yesterday when I needed an ID card and didn't have any money.

"You again?" the guy greeted me. "Did you decide you want into the system after all?"

I shook my head. "I don't trade in _unspecified_ favors."

"Suit yourself," he said, "but good plastic isn't what it used to be. Why do you think we hand these out for a pittance?"

"I'll live," I told him. "I actually wanted to ask if there's a supernatural version of wikipedia or something like that."

"Let me guess," the guy said, rolling his eyes. "You're hunting something, but you don't know what."

I shrugged. "Maybe. That depends on what it is."

"If you say so," he said. "Magical girls can use the internet just like everybody else. You could probably find something with just Google. But if you want information you can bet your life on, like, say, access to the Official Thaumonomicon, that's gonna cost you more than flashing me your tits."

I quirked an eyebrow. "How much more?"

"More than you've got, dearie." He laughed. "You don't get an account unless you're on the payroll."

"Thanks for nothing," I sighed, turning to leave.

"Hey, wait!"

I stopped and returned to my previous pose, looking at him expectantly. The weird-eyed guy stood up and held his hands out in a conciliatory way.

"I can't give you access, _buuuuuut_ ," he sing-songed, "I might be willing to look something up for you... Just this once, you understand."

"But it's going to cost more than flashing my tits at you," I finished for him impatiently.

"Damn right," he muttered, then, "this is a big favor, you know. I'm really putting myself out for you. If it's gonna be worth my while I wanna touch. All of you. You get n-naked, and you don't say a word about w-where I can't put my h-hands."

I had to suppress a smile at the way he started to lose his nerve. I also had to hide the squirm of arousal that his words provoked. Something in me also really liked the unambiguous and comfortably transactional nature of his proposition. It really was too bad that I needed him to think he was getting something that I _wouldn't_ have given freely.

"That sounds fair," I told him.

His eyes widened in surprise before he got his face under control. "Okay, come around to the side so I can let you in."

I went the way he pointed, where he lifted a section of countertop and unlocked a half-door. He led me through the public-facing area of the kiosk and into the private backroom where he printed the cards.

As soon as the door closed, I switched off my Style and let my clothes evaporate. He turned around to, I assumed, tell me to do exactly that, and floundered when he saw that I was already naked.

"...good gods," he said, fumbling his phone out without taking his eyes off me. "Right." He finally shook it off and looked at his phone. "What are—stupid mandatory manual login—what're you looking for?"

It was nice of him not to insist on taking his payment beforehand. "I think she was a succubus."

The weird-eyed guy shook his head. "There's no such thing as a succubus. Describe her?"

Well that figured. "Um, humanoid, bright red skin, horns, wings. She could float, pass through walls, and grow a cock. I caught her raping my friend to death, and there was some kind of venom in his system."

"That sounds like a fey," he told me, as he tap tap tapped on his phone. "That passing through walls narrows it down, see. Fey are intangible to nonmagical nonliving things, but _only_ those things, when they want to be. Succubi would be demons, by definition, but you get _demons_ when a Horror mates with a mortal, and that's a whole other genre of nasty. Is this her?" He held out his phone for me to look at.

"Not literally, I expect, but that looks like her," I told him, studying the picture while he 'studied' my breasts.

"Nocturnal erophage," he finally said, taking the phone back and scrolling down. "Erophages personify _fear of sex_. There are dozens of cataloged strains, but the one you're looking for is 'an embodiment of the lover's false hope, the disappointed vulnerability', whatever that means."

"I have an inkling," I said, imagining myself from Martin's perspective. _Too good to be true,_ was the feeling I thought that described. "Is that all?"

"Uh..." He scrolled some more. "Nocturnal doesn't mean they only come out at night. It means they're drawn to erotic dreams."

"That's something," I mused. "Why, though? What do they get out of it?"

A pause while he scrolled and read. "Doesn't say. Fey that come from fears try to prove those fears real—these ones can apparently steal mens' seed and, seed it elsewhere."

Well fuck. "Do they usually kill their victims?"

"They don't go out of their way," he told me. "Most deaths are caused by 'overexposure to her secretions of venomous nectar' when that happens."

"Do they have any other dangerous abilities?" I asked.

"Some of them can go invisible," he offered. He stopped and stared at the screen, surprised and unnerved. "Whatha'fuck."

"What?"

"If a nocturnal erophage has a man's seed in her body when she dies, that man becomes impotent for a year and a day."

That... wasn't really an unsolvable problem, actually. But it certainly hardened my resolve. These fey were an intolerable desecration upon human sexuality and had to be stopped. Not only that but it had to be me that stopped them. Other magical girls might not care or might not be willing to do anything more than simply kill them without regard for the consequences.

"Okay," I sighed. "Is there more?"

"That's pretty much it," the guy told me, shaking his head. "They don't have any centralized organization or overwhelming faction affiliation, and like other fey they won't hang out in the Crossroads where even normal walls can stop them."

"That's more than I had before," I said. "Alright. You've done your part."

The weird-eyed guy looked up and seemed to remember he was alone in a small room with a naked girl. I quirked an eyebrow and spread my arms to present myself to him. He gulped as he put his phone away.

"Y-yeah. I looked up your thing for you," he said. "Now are you gonna keep your end?"

"Of course."

"Remember, you agreed, I can touch you anywhere I want," he stated.

"That was the deal," I agreed, shivering slightly.

Daringly, like he still didn't quite believe me, he narrowed his eyes and lunged for my crotch. His hand clapped hard against my smooth mound, slick heat spilling onto his fingers as the _rush_ of his aggressive touch lifted me onto my toes.

My heels hit the floor as he _squeezed_ right over my clit. My hips bucked into his hand as my insides warmed and loosened, spreading heat and need over my skin.

He backed off a little at my pleased gasp, relaxing his grip to explore the contours of my vulva. His fingers, slippery with my nectar, stroked and played with my flushed, sensitive folds. He grabbed my hip with his other hand to steady me as his fingers teased around my drooling hole.

"Gods, it's so soft," he breathed.

Every circle lit off a wave of burning need in the emptiness of my core. I forgot to breathe as the anticipation swelled inside me, a void desperate to be filled. Then he curled his middle and ring fingers, and there was nowhere for them to go but _in_.

Weird-eyed guy finger-fucked me, slowly, seemingly awed by how easily his fingers slipped in and by what he felt inside. His other hand was a vivid warmth on my hip while the rest of my skin ached from neglect. He kept it up for a while, long enough that I felt ready to cum if he'd just go faster or harder for a bit.

Seeming to realize where his other hand actually was, he moved to the side a little, first hand going still inside me while he groped and kneaded my ass. I breathed raggedly, arching into it, and let my arm drop against his shoulder.

He stiffened. I made my eyes focus on him and realized that he was nearly as breathless as I was. He pulled away for a moment, wiping his wet hand on his shirt. My pussy throbbed in protest, but I didn't dwell on that because weird-eyed guy moved around behind me and ran both hands up my flanks, then reached around and cupped both of my breasts at once. My flesh overspilled his hands, which squeezed and lifted me, playing over my nipples and struggling to encompass the whole of my tits' mass.

Coarse cloth and the hard shape within mashed itself against my butt. He grunted as he clenched my breasts, pulling to force my body to stay put so he could shove his crotch into my ass.

I wanted to push back and grind my ass on him until he came. I wanted to turn around and rip his clothes off so we could fuck properly. But that wasn't what this was. That wasn't what weird-eyed guy needed from me. Intuitions I hadn't known I even had were insisting that turning aggressive would be the wrong move. Eager and servile would be even worse—I was suddenly sure he'd take it as mocking.

So I just moaned and shuddered as his fingers dug uncomfortably hard into my breasts and I felt him throb through his pants. He shifted his grip and pinched my nipples, tugging up like he was trying to lift me by my tits. I whimpered in pain, rather than hold it in, because I figured that's what he wanted, but the squirming and trying to rub my pussy on his pants was all me.

Adding credence to my theory, weird-eyed guy released my chest and took my wrists. He bent my arms behind me and forced me down on an empty section of work-table, flattening my breasts against the cool laminate. A heavy push on the small of my back bent me so my ass was up and my pussy throbbed in anticipation at being so exposed and available.

To be clear, he wasn't nearly strong enough to actually force me to move, but, it was hot that he tried. And, I was pretty sure I understood what was happening. When I heard him unzip, pants rustling over hips, I decided to test my theory.

"Hey! We only agreed on hands!" I protested, breathing hard as I glanced back.

"Relax," he panted. He had his cock out, and he took his hands off me to peel his shirt off. "Gods, you're so fucking hot..."

"You're only supposed to finger me! I'm not that kind of girl!" I tried to rise, but he grabbed me and shoved me back down. I almost giggled, but managed to hold it in.

"Oh shut _up_ ," he pleaded, sticking his thumb into me, "you magical girls are such stuck-up _whores_. You're totally into this, just _admit it_."

He sounded almost desperate as he leaned over me, weight on my spine, hands lovely on my hungry skin. Yeah. At this point I'd put money on it. This guy had tried to get into magical girl panties before, and got rejected every time. Cruelly. That's what this was. He was using me as a proxy for the ones who'd hurt him.

There was only one way I could think to respond, that would allow his catharsis. I caught his gaze with one eye, and smirked. " _Make me_."

His expression darkened, and I felt the tip of something fleshy and hot slip and slide through my folds. When it rode over my clit, I jolted and writhed against the table, my hips seeking more. Then he gave me more.

His cock sank into me, hot and throbbing as it filled me. My hips ignored me and thrust back, swallowing his shaft to the root and molding my butt to his hips. He groaned, releasing my arms to catch himself as he fell forward. Buried in me, I felt his breath on my neck and the heave of his torso on my butt and back as he held me pinned.

"That's it," he breathed, rising. His hands moved to my ass when I stayed put, squeezing. "That's right."

He drew back, and slammed into me. Half slipped from my vaginal embrace then rammed back in to fill me, gliding through my sodden sex hole. He held tight to my hips and used me, fucking into me with the wet slap of colliding flesh. 

The edge of the table dug into my thighs with each jolting thrust, but I didn't resist the press of his grip. I played the good slut, who knew she had this coming after waking such desire in him and refusing to take responsibility for it. I doubted that the weird-eyed guy wanted or needed my sympathy, the hollow placations of a more-fortunate stranger. It was too late for that. Unfulfilled need had already festered into resentment.

I dropped the act and let myself revel in being fucked like a blow-up doll, all wanton moans and pleased trembling. Because weird-eyed guy would _want_ to see my pleasure, wouldn't he. He'd want to see my body prove the lie of my perceived rejection.

It would've been way over the top to scream, "I'm cumming!" at the top of my lungs, not to mention embarrassingly cheesy, but thankfully I didn't have to. As an orgasm bolted down my nerves, my body said it for me, twitching and seizing, as I surrendered all control of my muscles to the pleasure.

"Is my dick making you cum?" weird-eyed guy panted. "Cum on my dick like that you cockteasing slut, yeah!"

It lasted almost as long as he kept fucking me, but his technique had nothing on Cecelia's.

"Nhg! You like that?" he grunted. "Fuck!"

Finally, weird-eyed guy groaned and finished, sheathed deep in my pussy as the hot flood of his cum pooled in my depths. Still twitching with aftershocks, only coming down properly now that he'd stilled, I felt him go to his elbows and drop his head to rest on my back.

For a long moment, the only sound was our breathing and the muted rumble of the Crossroads outside.

"I'm sorry," he finally said, "if I got carried away."

This time I couldn't stop the giggle. "Pay me and we'll call it even."

"Pay you?" he repeated blankly.

"I was just fucking with you when I said I wasn't that kind of girl," I confessed. "I'm totally that kind of girl. But you still owe me."

He grunted into my back. Then, slowly, he stood up and got off of me. His dick slipped out of me, leaving behind a hollow, vaguely satisfied ache. I pushed myself up and rubbed at the red lines imprinted on my thighs.

Weird-eyed guy looked at me awkwardly. "How much?"

"I don't come with a price-sheet," I told him. "Yet," I added wryly. "Why don't you let your conscience decide?"

Rolling his eyes, he pulled his pants up and went over to a shelf. He came back with a handful of hexes and tets. "Here."

I put on a smile, dropping the aurora dice into my Pocket. "Thanks!"

"I..."

"Hm?"

"I didn't mean to hurt you," he told me, looking at my thighs.

"You didn't," I assured him, smirking. "You just raped me and made me like it."

He choked, multi-pupil eyes bulging, and shook his head in denial.

I snickered, perching myself on the edge of the table. "Sorry. That was unfair of me to say."

"I know," he said defensively. "I'm not, like that."

I hopped off the table to go over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling. "It's okay if you are. The important thing is no one gets hurt, and, no one did."

"Yeah, well—good, I guess."

With that resolved, I activated Style and turned to go. "Pleasure doing business with you. Have a nice life, okay?"

* * *

The bounty office didn't have any postings for erophages in San Francisco, but I did spend a little while reading the slowly-scrolling wall-screen while the magical girl clerk eyed me critically. There were lots of other postings for San Francisco, but nothing that jumped out at me as obviously my responsibility.

They had a website, which I bookmarked on my tablet just in case, but apparently I had to have a Puchuu patron to get full access. Figured.

I had better luck at the boutique.

The place had the feel of a wizard's lair crossed with a racing garage crossed with a massage parlor. The entrance area served as a showroom, with full-color three-dimensional illusions showing off the most impressive soul modules in miniature demonstrations. A whole section was dedicated to various wing designs, which seemed to be the most popular product.

There wasn't a single price listed below two whole dodes.

The proprietor was a slightly plump human woman who had the ageless look of one who'd aged past forty and then been healed by magic. "Welcome to Jenesis. I'm Jen. What can I do for you?"

"I'm... Rousing Salve," I replied. "If I had a module installed I didn't know about, could you tell me what it was?"

"Hmm," Jen hummed thoughtfully. "That's an unusual request."

"I'm an unusual girl," I shot back before I could stop myself.

Jen merely smiled. "Fair enough. To answer your question, yes, assuming I would recognize it. It would require you to permit a deep scry and direct access to your raiment, same as it would if I were installing something myself, though."

"How much would that cost me if I asked you to go ahead?" I inquired.

Jen tapped her chin with a finger. "Assuming no complications, I could do that for thirty octs."

I didn't even have one, but I just nodded. "Is it okay if I come back when I can afford that?"

"Of course," she said easily. "Thanks for asking."

* * *

 _April 28th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Outside the Apartment_

I almost crashed straight into Darrek on my way into the building. He had his phone to his ear while he walked backwards towards the doors.

"...if that's the best time for you I can promise you right now we can work around your schedule. We—whoa! S'up, Cameron—we're loading up as we speak."

As Darrek went outside, Martin appeared, carrying a duffle bag. "Oh, Cameron, you're back. I was just about to text you. I'm sorry to spring this on you, but Darrek and I have to make a quick trip. There's this great location we've been after and the owner finally agreed to let us take a look at it."

I smiled at him. "Oh, neat. What's the location for?"

"Y'know, I'm not actually sure yet? We just thought it'd make a cool setting for a scene," Martin admitted. He paused and looked at me speculatively. "It could be—if you want to, I mean—where you have your first real scene with us. Unless inspiration strikes there probably won't be any lines for you to memorize."

"I can _try_ to deliver some lines, if you come up with any," I told him wryly. "What even is this place you're scouting?"

Martin shifted the strap of his duffle bag onto his shoulder, perking up excitedly. "It used to be a catholic church, but it was bought out in the aughts and remodeled as kind of a joke—the entire back wall is a stained-glass recreation of that one picture of Saturn, but they replaced the altar with this huge foam sculpture of the Flying Spaghetti Monster."

I burst out laughing. "That is _amazing_. I'd love to do a scene there."

A car pulled up outside and honked once.

"Good to know," Martin said, grinning. "Uh, we've gotta go now, though. Are you going to be okay by yourself until tonight? I just realized you're gonna be kinda locked out until we get back... I could run upstairs with you and let you in now..."

I shook my head as he trailed off. "You've been great, and it's nice of you to offer, but you don't need to leave me in your home unsupervised if you don't want to. I wouldn't, in your place. I'll be fine."

Martin made a cute scrunchy guilty face, as Darrek honked again. "Are you sure?"

"I'll be fine," I repeated. I grinned at his concern and gave him a smack on his ass in the general direction of the doors. "Go on."

* * *

 _April 28th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Downtown_

Finding the erophage by tracking her directly wasn't ever going to get me anywhere, but it wasn't hard to ask Google about young men mysteriously dying in their sleep. It was harder to find anything recent enough to matter, but there were a few auto-generated news articles and the like.

It wasn't much of a lead, but I didn't need _much_ of a lead. I just needed to know where to look.

Perched on the windy roof of a skyscraper, in my raiment, I sat and shivered. Biting wind cut through me like an icy knife, and I had to heal myself every few minutes just to stay comfortable.

I'd been up here for hours already. I'd seen three different magical girls flying around, several helicopters, and an astonishing number of seagulls.

I pulled my tablet out of my Pocket and read another message from Martin. He was still apologizing for leaving me to my own devices on such short notice. I tapped out a quick reply and stretched, healing myself again.

I dropped my tablet back into my Pocket. Stake outs were boring.

A sound, movement through the air, behind me. I tensed, snapping my head around, but there wasn't anything there.

"Over here, hi," a voice called.

A magical girl floated in front of me a short ways off the edge of the roof, smiling tentatively. She was a total waif, delicate-looking, with flat brown hair and big, bright eyes. Her raiment resembled a string bikini, if the strings were inch-wide ribbons several feet long, all in a shiny summer green. The ribbons from her top looped around her midriff, and the ribbons from her bottom wrapped each of her legs to the knee. She had elaborate sandals and armbands too, and a jeweled headband, all in white leather.

"Hi," I said.

"...I was flying around and I saw a light so I flew down to look and yeah," she explained, bobbing in the air.

I relaxed. "Ah. You must've seen my tablet."

"So... are you just hanging out up here? That's cool," the girl said, obviously curious but endearingly faux-casual.

"Actually, I'm hunting something," I told her. "What about you?"

"Me? No," she said, drifting upside-down as she looked out over the lights of the city evasively. "Just felt like flying." She spun around to peer at my shadowed form. "So who're you? I'm Swift Darling Dancing Breeze. Air Mage."

"Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve," I said, standing up. "Reinforcement."

"Nice to meet you, Rousing Salv—geep!" she flung her hands up in front of her eyes. "Is that your raiment?! Where's the rest of it?!"

I gave her an unimpressed look. "I've already got more covered skin than you do."

Dancing Breeze peeked at me through her fingers. "But... but... that's not... _whyyyyy_?!" she wailed.

"Is that a serious question?" I wondered, bemused.

"Um," she said, more calmly, "yes actually. How'd your patron convince you to go outside in that?"

"I don't have a patron," I told her, "but... it's my raiment. I knew it was right for me the moment I first transformed. Denying it would've been a betrayal of my truest self. I _will_ protect human sexuality from anything that threatens it, I _will_ share my body with anyone who desires it, and I _won't_ pretend I'm anything but proud to have my raiment declare that."

Dancing Breeze lowered her hands a little more. "Oh. That's actually really cool. Wow."

I couldn't help but smile. "Thanks."

"I wish I could be that confident," Dancing Breeze said longingly. She floated over and touched down on the edge of the roof.

"Me, confident? Not the word I'd use," I mused as I sat back down. Dedicated, more like. "How come?"

Dancing Breeze wafted down to sit beside me. "There's this boy in school—actually, wait, what're we looking for, first?"

"We?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not doing anything else. I can help you," she told me, fidgeting.

I smiled at her. "Okay."

"I've got a really good air sense!" she continued. "I can feel movement on the ground from here."

"I said okay," I assured her. "Just tell me if you sense any woman-shaped fey flying around. I'm after an erophage."

Dancing Breeze nodded. For a moment, she closed her eyes, and I felt a ripple of air pressure pass over my skin. After a short pause, she opened her eyes and looked at me again, idly kicking her legs.

"So what was that about a boy?" I asked curiously.

Dancing Breeze made a despairing sound. "I don't want to date him or anything. But he's yummy and nice and I just wish I could hook up with him without my mom freaking out or everyone calling me a skanky ho."

"Ah. That."

"How do you deal with it?" Dancing Breeze asked curiously.

That was a good question, actually. I knew in an abstract way that I aspired to one of the most stigmatized careers in the country, but if anything that just made me more certain in my path. I knew what it felt like to be mocked and put down, but out of all the things I could be mocked or put down _for_...

"I don't think my method would work for you," I told her. "Sex isn't just about fun or romance, for me. It's my cause. My... calling. To be so utterly certain in my priorities that I can say with pride that I was born to be a whore... I don't think it's fair to ask that of anyone who had more to lose than I did."

"That's... huh," Dancing Breeze said, an abstracted expression on her face.

I smiled at her, and at how she, at least, didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with me. "If you want my opinion, I don't think slut-shaming is even about sex in the first place, though."

"What?"

"I sincerely doubt that anyone who calls you a 'skanky ho' actually cares how much casual sex you did or didn't have," I said musingly. "It's the same status game, the same tribal signaling instincts that've been fucking up every human society since the invention of agriculture. If it wasn't your sex life it'd be something else, and the standards would be just as arbitrary."

Dancing Breeze looked at me with something like hope. "You really think that's true?"

I shrugged. "I don't think it matters what I think. What hurts more? The ungratified craving for cock, or the petty scorn of some people you don't want to be friends with anyway?"

"Well," Dancing Breeze giggled, "when you put it like _that_."

* * *

 _April 29th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Chinatown_

Alone, I ran along the lip of a low roof as quietly as I could. Ahead and above, a nude red-skinned woman with wings and horns flew along the building face about half a block away. The four orbs of Emerald Bliss orbited my hand.

The busy, uneven roofs here made it easier to follow without being seen, but that also made it harder to keep the erophage in sight. Coming up on a taller building, instead of going up I darted out into open air above the street.

I cast a shield under my foot and kicked off back towards the building face. I ran along the wall, leaped out, and used another shield to bounce back. It was hard. My leg ached from the strain of forcing myself not to slip, but I only needed to do it another two times before I reached the edge of that building and made it onto the next roof.

I chased the erophage across three more blocks, that way. Finally, I saw her stop and hover outside a particular window. I ducked down and held still, catching my breath.

The light from inside, or maybe reflected off the glass, caught her face. She wasn't the one I yanked off Martin. Damn. I expected that, but it still wasn't good news. She drifted forward and passed through the window.

I vaulted out of my hiding spot, rushed to the roof's corner, and jumped. I bounded off a shield and up to the bottom of the window, catching the sill with my fingers. I pulled myself up slowly. The curtains were closed, but there was enough of a gap to see inside.

A bed in a dim room, decorated in gaming posters, lit by the glow of a laptop screen. The erophage floated above the bed, intent on its occupant as she gently drew the covers down to reveal a male shape.

I charged an orb and fired it straight up into the sky.

That done, I took a look at the window itself. To my relief, it was the kind that slid open, without even a screen in the way. Inside, the erophage forced a kiss on the occupant of the bed. He woke up. For a moment he seemed into it, but then he flailed and tried to shove her off. As she continued to kiss him, his thrashing stopped and his arms fell limp.

I watched, waiting, as she rolled him onto his back and yanked his underwear down. A silhouette in the dimness, his erection sprung free. I could see his face now, too. Average and thirtyish. His eyes darted, a stark contrast to his slack face and body. Awake, but paralyzed.

The naked red-skinned fey woman didn't waste any time. She rose up and impaled herself on her victim's cock without a moment's pause. She arched, gasping happily. Her hips began to swivel and rock.

I had no way of knowing how the guy in the bed felt about this, and I could only guess how much of it the Veil actually let him be aware of. Without any better cues to work from, I had to risk the timing.

Carefully, I pushed my Cleansing Aura out to cover the room. At the same time, I got the best grip I could on the bottom of the window frame.

Inside, the guy in the bed started moving. Just twitches at first, then squirming, until his hands rose to grip the fey woman's hips. Her head snapped down with a loud confused noise. Scowling, she leaned down to kiss him again, forcing her tongue into his mouth.

I lifted the window and pulled myself in.

"Rrg, why are you still moving?" the erophage grunted, breaking the kiss.

The guy in the bed didn't reply. They were still fucking, moving together where they were joined, even while the fey huffed in irritation and the human remained out of it, unable to focus on her properly.

Shields popped into being behind me, tiling to form a wall. More shields followed in my wake like a wave as I vaulted onto the bed, covering the floor and ceiling and walls. The low thrumming sound gave me away, but I already had my arm around the fey's neck.

She shrieked in anger, turning feral in an instant. She thrashed and clawed and tried to gore me with her horns, jerking me back and forth.

My breasts crushed against her wing-joints as I strangled her and she tried to throw me off. Her wings strained, but I was stronger. The backswept point of her horn ripped a gash in my cheek when I failed to dodge, hot agony running from my nose to my hairline, barely missing my eye.

Boxing in an entire room with over a hundred shields didn't leave me with enough mana to heal. My blood gushed down my face, staining the fey's silver hair and dripping all over my chest.

I snarled and hauled back, lifting her off her victim's penis and tipping us both off the bed. I went down, but she wasn't bound by gravity. She went up. The new angle let her slip out of my stranglehold, hurl herself in the opposite direction... and smash face-first into my shield mosaic. She pounded on it for a moment before she spun around and glared at me.

"What the fuck... what the _fuck_..." came the slurred voice of the bed's occupant.

"I can't kill you yet," I told the erophage, hissing as my wound pulled when I spoke. "If you've got anything to say for yourself, now's the time."

Her glare only intensified, and she flexed her hips. Her cock emerged with a liquid _splurt_. "Fuck you! Literally!"

I smirked at that. Only a creature born from 'fear of sex' would think to use that as a sincere threat. This fey really had no concept of what she was dealing with. She was so accustomed to enemies who balked at the sexual that it hadn't occurred to her that I'd set up a rape-fight deliberately.

It was the only way to make sure she didn't have any cum in her when she died. I was here to protect innocent men from an impotence curse, not to punish an evildoer.

The erophage rose up in the air and dove at me. I stepped into her charge, ducking her first swipe. I caught her other arm and let her momentum drive her into my thrumming floor of shields. Dazed, she tried to rise, but I tackled her.

She rose anyway. Flinging herself up, my back slammed into the ceiling shields. I twisted out of the way and the point her horn screeched along the surface of the planar hexagon.

Slipping lower, I locked my legs around her legs and slammed my head between her wing-joints. She dragged me sideways until we hit the wall, but I endured that and reached for her cock.

It was gooey-slick and flesh-hot in my hand. I squeezed, and the erophage stopped dead with a breathy shriek. Before she could recover, I brought both arms around her waist and grabbed on, stroking her shaft as firmly as I could.

"Uuhn!"

We fell down on our sides, hitting the floor shields with a jolt and a rather startling splash of blood. I tried not to think about that and kept jerking her off. I could sense the pool of stolen semen held in her body, a sharp contrast to the bizarre simplicity of her organs.

"Uhn uuhn uhm uh, no, no, this isn't right I need this cum for—uuhn!"

Her cock pulsed powerfully, pumping cum out of her reservoir. She thrashed in my arms, but not with any coordinated effort, just pleasure. By the end of the orgasm, she was down by more than half her reserve.

"No no, what did you _do_ , look what you _did_!" she snarled, struggling anew. "You can't do this! You can't make me cum! I make you cum! Until you hate cumming then I make you cum more! You made me waste that seed! That seed was for the Mistress!"

Dangling under her, arms around her waist with her bouncy red ass thrashing against the corset part of my raiment, I kicked against the wall to swing myself up. That was a mistake. The clawed tips of her wings scraped up the corset's back and ripped into my shoulders.

A cry of pain tore out of me as I lost my hold—on her, and on some of the smaller shields, opening holes at the corners of the trap—and fell face-first into the floor shields with a bloody splat.

Panting raggedly, the erophage whirled around to hover upright. She glared at me, and her wet cock throbbed. I rolled onto my back, groaning in real pain, but I let my legs fall open, spread wide and bent at the knee to keep my feet on the floor, and tried to look as rapeable as possible.

I wasn't wet enough. Well, maybe that would help sell it.

I was actually a little surprised when my futanari foe took the bait, even so. She swooped down on me, ramming forward with her cock so it impaled me before any other part of her even touched me. Her thick slippery meat punched through my folds and wrenched my insides around its girth.

"Gnnngh!" I flinched, hard, but at the suddenness more than at any real pain.

Our mounds smacked together as she landed on top of me. Her hands came down on my shoulders, jolting my wounds against the floor, and she spit on my face. Pain and pleasure fought for dominance as she rocked back and started fucking me. Her cock felt amazing, slick and hot, stretching me with each thrust.

But my face and shoulders were still slashed open and bleeding profusely. The pain kept my mind sharp. While the fey pounded into me, I brought Emerald Bliss around behind her and merged it into its dildo form.

"What, the fuck, why, aren't you, paralyzed, yet?!" she whined piteously between thrusts. So that was why she'd fallen for my ruse. She still hadn't realized that I had a Cleansing Aura that made me immune to her paralytic fluids.

I waited for my moment, then I arrowed Emerald Bliss into the erophage's cunt. She lurched, slamming her cock as deep into me as it would go, as a scream of pleasured surprise tore out of her throat. She twisted around to look behind her, but there wasn't anything to see. Emerald Bliss was already inside her.

She tried to pull away, push herself up, only to yelp and arch as the mystic dildo in her pussy held its position in space. With it bottomed out in her tunnel, the only direction she could move her body was the direction Emerald Bliss pointed, and I had it angled to pin her against me.

"No, no no no, what the fuck you can't!" She moved to pull her cock out of me, but couldn't. When she tried, the front of her belly bulged out where her flesh strained against my mystic dildo's head.

With a gasp of relief, I dispelled all of my shields except the one we were laying on. I waited a few moments for my mana to clear up, then, finally, healed myself. The gash on my face closed up in half a second, and after a little longer I got the use of my arms back.

I moaned, rolling my hips and fucking myself on the fey's trapped cock, struck by pleasure now that the pain was gone. I moved Emerald Bliss, forcing her to move with me, pulling her around by the inside of her pussy.

"No! Fuck! Rrrrg!" she moaned in a snarly way.

She punched me, clawed at me, and tried to head-butt me. I grabbed her horns. Now that I had enough mana free to keep Perfect Incarnation going, it didn't matter. I healed faster than she could hurt me.

I concentrated on moving my hips, on the feel of her shaft in my vagina as I did my best to milk her with my sensitive walls. Her anatomy was laughably simplified, but she did have a nervous system my senses could detect, so I could see directly how much I stimulated her. Without the muscle memory that came from practice, I had to rely on my increasingly obvious superhuman agility, but that was sufficient.

Finally, the erophage cried out helplessly and ejaculated, hard, pumping into me as my pussy drained the last of her hostage cum out of her dick. And her dick slurped back into her body, leaving behind only the distended folds of her stuffed, feminine sex.

"If you want to give me a reason not to kill you, now's the time," I breathed, holding her face in front of mine. "What was that about a Mistress?"

She mustered up a defiant look in the haze of her aftershocks, then closed her eyes. I grimaced, but I didn't hesitate. I cast a shield between our bodies, and charged Emerald Bliss with mana.

The result was _not_ the explosion I expected, even if it was an explosion of a different kind. The impaled fey screamed at the top of her lungs, a sound of pure pleasure, before she went into a silent seizure. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she convulsed like she'd touched a live wire.

I dispelled the shield between us, and the one under my back, simply watching incredulously as she went on cumming and cumming and cumming. "Oh, now, that isn't even the fun kind of cheating."

I should've figured that Emerald Bliss would have a different charge-up effect in dildo form, though. I lifted her up onto her knees to give me room to move and slowly stood up. And she kept cumming.

I glanced over at the bed, and saw the thirtyish asian guy lit by the emerald glow shining out of the fey's crotch. He was propped against his headboard, cock in hand, eyes glazed as he masturbated to... whatever it was he thought he saw in front of him. And the erophage kept cumming.

I smiled at him and said, "Whew! Sorry about the mess."

"Urrrr?" was the extent of his reply.

I noticed the shape of my shadow on his bed and stepped a little to the side. The light from Emerald Bliss shined through my thigh-gap and illuminated my bare glistening vulva for him. I slid one hand between my legs, rubbing at my aching needy slit a little, and his hand started moving faster on his cock.

The guy on the bed ejaculated, and slumped over unconscious. I checked him, just in case the Veil had given him brain damage or something, but from what I sensed he was just asleep. I healed him anyway and tucked him in, because why not.

Behind me, the erophage was _still_ cumming her brains out. I turned around and watched her convulse. I'd meant to kill her, but that was before she let slip about this mysterious Mistress. If there was something bigger going on, I had to reprioritize.

Even though Emerald Bliss apparently had an orgasm power, I still didn't have a lot confidence in my ability to interrogate her. I took a deep breath and a mental step back.

No. I wasn't thinking. I'd already fucked this up. Even if I knew how erophages responded to orgasm torture, I had no way to verify anything this one told me. If I'd known about the Mistress, I would've stayed hidden and then followed the erophage back to her lair or whatever. The smart thing to do would be to kill this one now and follow the _next_ one.

I spared a moment to mourn what that additional time would cost who knows how many sexually insecure innocents, and bent over to grab the erophage's head. It took me about a dozen tries to learn how to successfully break a neck.

Her body started disintegrating almost as soon as she stopped twitching. Her flesh turned clear and drained away like liquid, sucked out of reality in a direction I didn't have a name for.

Her hair remained for some reason, flopping to the floor when her head vanished. The last of her liquefying flesh also remained, condensing into three small rippling spheres. One glowed red, and the other two glowed purple.

I only hesitated for a moment before I swept all of it into my Pocket.

* * *

I vaulted out the window, bounded off a shield, and backflipped onto the roof. Thanks to my Style, there wasn't any visible sign that I'd bled all over myself.

Dancing Breeze flitted over to me. "What happened? Did you win?"

"Well, I killed the erophage," I said. "Thanks for being my lookout."

"No problem," she said, settling onto her feet. "I didn't see any other fey like that one, though."

I shook my head. "Of course not. That would be too easy."

"Huh?"

"The erophage was working for someone," I explained.

"Oh." Dancing Breeze bit her lip. "That's probably not good."

"Exactly." I moved a little closer to her. "I owe you one. If you want to help me out again, I'll owe you more than one. I need to find more of them."

"Well, you know what they say about getting on a healer's good side." Dancing Breeze offered me her hand. "My name's Bree. And yes, that's actually my name. It's not short for Breeze. Well, it is, but only by accident."

I smiled in amusement, but inwardly sighed as I shook her hand. It was pretty obvious to me that Bree was straight. Being her on-call healer was fine with me, but it made me uncomfortable to feel like my body wasn't a relevant commodity.

"I'm Cameron," I told her.

"Cool," Bree said. "So hey, wanna swap numbers? You can totally call me when you need me to spot for you again, if I can call you when I need a healer? We probably won't be fighting the same things most of the time, but, y'know. Synergy."

"Synergy is good," I agreed, pulling my tablet out of a seam in the air. "It's a deal."

* * *

 _April 29th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I slept through Martin's and Darrek's morning routines and woke up to find Darrek in the kitchen eating out of a take-out carton. I sat up and stretched, yawning as I let the blanket fall to my waist.

"G'morning, gorgeous," Darrek greeted between fork-fulls.

"Hi," I replied. "How was the scouting trip?"

"All good news," he said. "We've got the place for six hours next Thursday afternoon." He grinned at me, gesturing with his fork. "You're gonna wanna make a note. Martin's been holed up in his room all morning blocking out a scene just for you."

I glanced at the door to Martin's room, bouncing a little. "I'll do my best to be worth the effort."

"I'm _sure_ you will," Darrek drawled suggestively.

I shivered and slowly grinned at him. On a whim, I decided to show off and lifted myself onto my hands, on frame of the backrest. Breaking eye-contact, I pushed myself up into a hand-stand, legs at right angles to my torso so my bare vulva was the highest point on my body. Careful not to tip the entire sofa over, I raised and brought my legs together. Then, one leg at a time, I tipped over backwards and set my feet down on the floor.

I popped upright and saw Darrek staring at me, fork frozen. I giggled.

My flexibility, dexterity, and balance were _well_ beyond peak human, I was coming to realize. There might be a circus strong-man or body-builder out there who could beat me in raw strength with mundane muscles, but my physical agility put even certain fictional elves to shame. I knew that was weird, because I really didn't look it. All curvy and jiggly despite being fit enough to have visible abs, I looked _sturdy_ —in the most fuckable of ways—not nimble.

Darrek put his fork down and grinned at me. "Now there's a talent with possibilities."

"Speaking of which," I said playfully. "I hear I'm officially safe to touch..."

"Ooh, is that an invitation, babe?" Darrek asked with a playful leer.

"If you want it to be," I replied plainly.

Darrek began to reply when his phone rang. He gave me a shrug and picked it up. "You've got Darrek."

With both of the boys busy, I decided to take a shower. I didn't know how far I could push the Veil on either of them noticing if I just relied on Style entirely for my hygiene. Besides, after last night, it was soothing to stand under the stream of hot water and feel it sluice over the shape of my body.

After I dried off, I flopped nude on the sofa again and pulled out my tablet. I had a rough cut of my whole threesome with Vanessa and Cecelia, but I still had to go over it to make sure no sloppy editing made it into the final render.

Between calls, Darrek appeared above me, leaning over the backrest from behind. One of his hands dropped down to brush along the curve of my bare breast, painting vivid tingles of pleased anticipation across the skin there. "Hey, gorgeous. Is that what I think it is?"

"Mmm." I wriggled comfortably and arched into his touch. "Maybe?"

Darrek chuckled, bending down to get a better look. "Hah! So _that's_ what those two were being all coy about."

"Vanessa's really cool," I opined.

"Don't I know it," Darrek deadpanned. He grinned at me. "You gonna post that up?"

"Of course," I told him, slowly smirking. "But, before I do, maybe you and Martin should watch it through with me, to catch any errors before it goes public?"

Darrek nodded magnanimously. "Absolutely."

I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"By which I mean, Martin will pay attention to your sweet-ass video skills," Darrek continued in the same tone, "while I evaluate your sweet ass-skills."

"Pfff," I started giggling. "It's a date."

His phone chimed. My giggles cut off with a little gasp as Darrek gave my nipple a quick pinch and tug before he retreated. I tapped the render button, set it going, and put my tablet aside with a smile.

* * *

Up on the TV, my file was queued up and ready to play. At the center of the sofa, I sat and tried to keep my cool, nude. On the armchairs at either end of the sofa, Martin and Darrek sat fully clothed. I looked at Darrek. I looked at Martin. I shook my head.

"What is it, Cameron?" Martin asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Guys, what's wrong with this picture?"

Martin blinked at me, but Darrek laughed. "You think she's feeling lonesome, Marty?"

"Oh, did you want us to..." Martin waved vaguely at the space beside me.

"Take your clothes off and sit where you can get at me?" I suggested impishly, wiggling. "That was the idea."

Martin gave me a sheepish smile. He and Darrek exchanged a look, and a shrug. Both of them stood up and stripped down, quickly and efficiently. I knew what to expect, from watching them on screen, but this was actually the first time I saw them naked in person. Martin was sleek and unassuming, with nice smooth skin and a very symmetrical penis. Darrek looked like he worked out, with stubble on his chest and groin, and his dick was a little bigger with a slight downward curve.

Martin sat on my left, touching but not crowding. Darrek dropped into the space on my right and immediately slung an arm over my shoulders. I rubbed up against both of them a little. Leaving the remote on my lap, I scooched back a little and casually took one cock in each hand.

"You think she's trying to tell us something?" Darrek snarked at Martin.

Martin just gave him a bland look and grabbed the remote off my lap. He hit play, and while I held their slowly swelling dicks for them, we watched.

We watched Vanessa lead me into her room to kiss me and make me cum. We watched the video carefully cut around my simulated outfit getting torn off. We watched Vanessa and I admire each others breasts. We watched Vanessa push me down on the bed and demonstrate how to eat pussy. We watched an edited version of our conversation, but I'd preserved Vanessa's speech about how humans were meant to touch each other. That part was beautiful and important.

We watched Cecelia appear and join in. We watched Vanessa sit on me while Cecelia pounded my pussy with a dildo, and I had orgasm after orgasm for almost ten minutes straight. Arty fading made it seem like that might've been an editing trick, but I'd actually cut it down a little from the reality.

Finally, Vanessa was cuddling me on the screen, while in reality Martin and Darrek's cocks were rock hard and throbbing in my hands. I was pretty damn wet myself, helped along by Darrek's hand between my legs.

"Okay," Darrek said. "Vanessa deserves to be smug. This time."

Martin smiled at me. "I really liked the end there where you made it look like you had a ten-minute orgasm. I don't think I spotted a repeated shot even once, and you ended the scene just before it would've gone on too long."

I snickered. "It was actually more like fourteen minutes. Ask Cece if you don't believe me."

Martin's eyebrows shot up. "Wow."

I squeezed his cock, giving it a firm stroke. "I know, I didn't know I could do that either. I'm kinda curious just how much it takes to wear me out, now."

Martin's cock pulsed in my hand. Meanwhile, Darrek grabbed my leg and pulled. I let him move me, and he hooked my right leg over both of his. Liking where this was going, I lifted my left leg and slung it across Martin's lap so I was spread open evenly between them. Darrek's fingers slipped down and into my flushed and needy flesh canal.

I leaned my head back and moaned.

"Y'know, I don't think you ever said which of us you'd rather fuck first," Darrek commented.

"I, mmm, honestly don't care," I admitted. "You guys pick."

"I _saw_ her first," Darrek suggested lightly.

"You also called her a whore ten seconds after meeting her," Martin reminded him, petting my breast.

I snorted, rolling my hips as two fingers pumped into me and hands caressed me.

"Now don't go bein' like that, I apologized quick enough," Darrek rebutted. "Didn't I, babe?"

"It was funny 'cause it's true," I giggled, stroking with both my hands.

"I'd rather call you a sex-positive enthusiast," Martin told me, groaning a little at my hand-job. "Unless you get off on that sort of thing..."

"I'm a clean, enthusiastic, whore," I giggle-moaned. "You can write that one down."

"Keep jerkin' us," Darrek told me. "Whoever cums first fucks you second."

"Fine," Martin agreed.

Well, that was more fun than flipping a coin. I took the challenge seriously, though. I made sure my hands moved in tandem, both moving in exactly the same way and gripping with the same force. It took concentration. Darrek kept playing with my pussy and Martin went on fondling my breasts until I came before either of them.

It was mild and slow, as orgasms went, and it just made me want more. Leaning on my superhuman dexterity, I made sure my dual-hand-job didn't falter, even as cumming made me clumsy.

After a short while, Darrek grunted and tensed up. His cock pulsed and spurted. Cum dripped down over my hand. I thought about licking it up, but... I didn't actually find that appealing. I'd have to work on that, later.

Wordlessly, I pulled my legs in and rolled over onto Martin, settling astride his hips. He looked up at me, patiently expectant. I caught the tip of his cock in the cleft of my pussy and sank onto him in one steady drop.

Mound to mound, I rocked against him, unhurried. I didn't know if my instincts for this were actually any good, yet, but I did seem to have accumulated certain intuitions about Martin's needs. Vigorous fucking wasn't the way to go—he got plenty of that on set, and on set it'd be bound up in _performance_ , in fighting his body for control, wouldn't it.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and gently pushed my breasts into his face. He nuzzled in happily, nosing his way down to a nipple and latching on. He wasn't using his hands, though. I pressed against him, working my hips in a slow firm roll to squeeze and slide Martin's rigid shaft within me while I rubbed on him with my whole torso, but he merely went along passively.

Nursing a suspicion, I glanced back and saw that his hands _weren't_ idle. He kept almost reaching for my ass or my hips, but didn't quite make it before changing his mind. A helpless giggle escaped me before I could stop it, because I'd _seen_ this in porn before and it always struck me as silly.

"Ohmigods, you're doing the thing!" I practically cooed.

"Bwuh?" Martin popped off my nipple. "What thing?"

"The awkward hands thing," I explained, amused.

"Uh? Oh, well, I didn't want to presume..." Martin began.

I rolled my eyes affectionately. "Put your hands on my body, Martin."

Martin blinked at me, then nodded, relaxing some even though Darrek snickered at us. He grabbed my waist and stroked his fingertips across the plush flare of my hips. I ground myself against him a little harder, drawn to the pressure on my clit and encouraged by his wandering hands.

I dipped down to kiss him and did my best to make it soothing and reassuring. Even as I felt an orgasm building up in my core, most of my mind stayed on giving Martin something that wasn't about his _prowess_. I wondered how much of Martin's sex life usually took place _off_ set, because at this point it'd surprise me if that ratio wasn't very low.

The way Martin slowly but steadily melted into my wriggly slow ride rather than urging me to fuck harder at least didn't disprove my theory, I thought. He alternated between feeling me up and just wrapping his arms around my waist to maximize skin contact. My orgasm came and went without fanfare.

Martin shuddered and gasped into my breasts shortly after that, as I felt him ejaculate inside me. It felt like doing anything to acknowledge his orgasm would've been the wrong move, so I didn't. I just kept going. I had to adjust my angle a little to keep him inside me, but he didn't stay soft long enough for it to matter.

After I managed to make myself cum twice more, Martin finally tensed up, clutched me tight, and I started undulating on his dick as fast as I could move my hips. He threw his head back and seized up, cumming hard and slathering my swollen walls with white.

I slowed, watching his nerve signals to gauge my pace, until he was done and I could relax onto him with a sigh. Martin's hands stroked up and down my back, lovely on my skin, as he caught his breath.

I glanced over and saw that Darrek had wandered off at some point, but after a few more minutes of cuddling he reappeared with a towel and some wet wipes for me.

I sat up a little on Martin's lap and gave Darrek a mellow grin. "Thanks. I'd rather not leave you with _literal_ sloppy seconds."

Darrek laughed. "There's such a thing as too comfortable with each other for a straight man's peace of mind, even in our business."

I quirked an eyebrow, giggling. "So it's fine if the balls touch, but it's gay if you get cum on each other?"

"Y'know we're still not a hundred percent on that, either which way," Darrek told me airily.

With a satisfied smile, Martin nudged me off of him. I got up and wiped myself off after I gave him one last kiss. As I handed the towel back to Darrek, Martin levered himself up and gave me a passing fondle as he shuffled towards the bathroom.

I assessed the way Darrek looked at me and flopped back down on the sofa, lengthwise this time. It was basically how I slept, but on top of the blanket instead of under it. I pulled my legs up and opened them, looking at Darrek expectantly.

Darrek didn't waste any time. He climbed onto the sofa and settled himself between my thighs, grabbing his dick and dragging it through my folds. I sucked in a breath and curled upwards for him, but he just chuckled and slapped my clit with his cock a few times.

I let out a needy whine.

Nothing about Darrek really twigged my instincts the way Martin had. If he had any repressed sexual needs they were too subtle or buried too deep for me to notice. For him, it seemed to me like this was merely about simple carnal fun.

Which was more than fine, since I was here anyway. He could just _fuck_ me and I could just bask in the pure animalistic simplicity of it.

Darrek fed his cock into my swollen, gooey vagina and lowered himself onto me. He bucked forward, spearing me deep and clapping our bodies together. I wrapped myself around him and urged him on, and he obliged.

Darrek braced himself and started pounding me, thrusting hard and free with nothing but raw lust as soon as he saw that I could take it.

It didn't take long to drive me to a peak. My breath caught, my arms and legs tightened around his body, and my eyes fluttered closed again as each spasm rippled out from my wonderfully full pussy. But that was hardly a deterrent when we'd just finished watching Cecelia fail to wear me out with a strap-on. Darrek just took my first orgasm as his cue to fuck me even harder.

I throbbed and spasmed and shuddered as he slammed into me without restraint, blasting waves of pure pleasure out from my core and vigorously jolting my whole body with every thrust.

It went on for a while, and it never started feeling like too much.

Eventually, Darrek roared out his climax and hilted himself deep, pumping out spurt after spurt of cum as my clenching walls quivered and squeezed his length.

As I came down and stopped cumming myself, I savored the shocks of pleasure every time my pussy throbbed and clenched around his buried thickness. I pulled him down, taking his weight off his elbows as he flumped tiredly onto me.

"Damn," Darrek panted. "You're like, freakish insatiable, fuck. I'm tapped out."

I giggled breathlessly and moaned. "I feel pretty fucking good right now."

"Oh good," Darrek gasped out. "Do'ya need me to move? 'Cause I dunno if I can move."

He wasn't bulky, but Darrek was heavy enough that his weight probably would've been uncomfortable for many girls. Thankfully, that wasn't a concern for me. I could feel his weight, but it just felt nice.

"I'm comfy," I told him, wiggling a little. "Mmm."

Darrek grunted something I couldn't make out. I just petted him and stared at nothing, content to simply feel.


	6. EELESIA

_May 8th, 2027_  
_Ligeia Mare, Titan_  
_Clementine's Hollow_

The sky was on fire, and it was still cold enough for a polar bear to freeze to death in minutes out here on the exposed tundra. The clouds here were made of liquid methane, and all it took was a single spark to cover the land with a ceiling of flame. With enough oxygen to make the atmosphere breathable, it only ever rained lightly on Titan, since heavier storms inevitably set themselves on fire.

The cold didn't touch me, thanks to my Environment utility module. The film of fine soot in the too-thick air parted around my face when I breathed in, and slithered off my raiment when I moved. Style kept it from sticking to me.

I sprinted up an icy slope, so low I was almost on all-fours. One last leap carried me sixty feet to the top, where I had to dig my fingers into the icy rock to keep the wind from blowing me away. Here, the ground just ended, leaving me perched at the edge of a very long drop.

A towering industrial plant stretched across the shore below, at the bottom of a sheer cliff. I rose to a crouch, looking out over a vast lake of standing liquid methane. Flame vortexes danced across its surface, tornadoes bridging a burning sky with the lake of fire.

Beneath me, on the shore, teams of men in thick coats and face-masks scrambled towards a massive steam-powered land-crawler. It started chugging forward, slowly raising a massive canopy of reflective metal to expose a truly enormous greenhouse to the firestorm above.

I kicked off the edge and dove into empty space, blown forward by the wind until I dipped into the calm pocket beneath. From the other side, the top of the 'hill' I'd climbed revealed itself to be the roof of an ice-encrusted half-dome carved from solid rock.

Inside, lit by the glow of millions of gas lamps and echoing with the sounds of steam-powered machinery, there was a packed city of metal and brick. Whole neighborhoods were suspended on bridges, connected by ladders and catwalks in a haphazard sprawl, while absurd-looking aircraft chugged along designated lanes.

As I fell among suspended towers of brick and brass between soaring causeways thick with piping, the air rapidly warmed to well above freezing. I couldn't feel it myself, but the locals I saw walked around quite comfortably in warm but quite mundane if old-fashioned clothing.

The fall was slow, with air resistance matching gravity at a speed so low it felt more like sinking than falling. I brought my body into a line, feet pointed down like an arrow, arms meeting above my head. The purple tassels of my raiment streamed up, licking around my torso and baring my thighs entirely. The speed of my fall increased.

Shortly, I landed lightly in the middle of a mostly-empty suspended street, dropping to a classic three-point crouch to minimize the metallic clang of my impact. A passing couple in stained work clothes yelped in surprise and a young boy shrieked and knocked over his push-cart.

Ignoring them, I closed my eyes and opened my Sight.

The Veil was thick, here, swollen with untapped energy in all four bands. Sorrow and admiration in blue. Defiance and triumph in red. Terror and bliss in violet. Revulsion and awe in green. As I stood up from my landing, I reached out to drain energy from the nearest hyperbubbles, filling my reserves.

There was a soul for me to find, somewhere in this town, but with such a saturation of Veil colors all over everything I couldn't see much farther with my Sight than I could with my physical eyes. The Veil was less efficient, this far out in the solar system, which meant faster energy build-ups, but it still looked like Clementine's Hollow hadn't seen an Empathy Mage in months.

I'd have to find her the slow way. Turning, I leaped lightly over to the fallen boy. I helped him pick his cart up while he stared at me with wide eyes, feeding me a steady trickle of awe.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said politely.

"You're welcome." After a moment's consideration, I pulled out my phone and brought up an old photo to show the boy. "Would you tell me, have you ever seen this girl before?"

The boy shook his head, wide-eyed.

"Do you know anyone who knows a lot of people and might know her?" I asked gently.

Hesitantly, the boy nodded.

"Do you think you could introduce me?" I asked him, with my best innocent smile.

The boy nodded again. "But, um, ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Are you an alien?"

I giggled despite myself and put my phone away before it attracted any more attention, even though my raiment stood out enough that it probably didn't matter. This would take entirely too long if I tried to blend in, though, and it'd already taken me a week to even follow her trail this far.

"I'm an earthling, yes," I told him, smiling.

"Wow," he replied earnestly. "How'd you get here? Do you have a space rocket?"

"That's a secret," I informed him, just as earnestly, and a little sadly, "but not a secret space rocket."

"Aw. Okay. I'll take you to Wendy."

The boy led me a ways, to a woman in overalls and goggles eating some kind of sandwich outside a brick clocktower, and started jabbering excitedly about meeting an alien. The freckled woman in stained denim gave me a slow once-over, and the boy an indulgent headpat. I waved innocently.

"Alien, eh?" Wendy said neutrally. "She doesn't look like any of those metal men in the papers."

"She's not! She's an earthling!"

"I'm also not a robot," I added. I pulled out my phone and showed Wendy the picture. "I'm looking for this girl."

Wendy blinked, staring at the device in my hand. "Well I'll be..." She shook herself, and peered at the picture. "Oh, yeah, that's... don't remember if I ever got her name, but I remember her. Only girl I've ever seen dressed weirder than you. Least you're modest, if you cover one eye and squint."

I smiled mysteriously, ignoring her dig at my raiment. "Can you point me in the right direction?"

"Two levels down, back-ways. There's a plaza. I saw her working tables at one of the restaurants," Wendy informed me. She hesitated, frowning. "Is... she an earthling too?"

"That's not for me to say," I said. "Thank you for your help."

I darted away, diving through a gap between buildings into freefall. I bounded off a lower shingled roof, a pipe-laden wall, and then ran down a suspension wire to avoid a crowded stairway. Following Wendy's directions, I made my way deeper into the city, moving away from the fiery glow of the lake and storm.

Once I got close enough to the lamp-lit plaza, a soul stood out clearly to my Sight. I hopped down to join the other pedestrians properly and took a steadying breath. My Sight led me to the restaurant—some kind of diner-pub hybrid—and I went in. And stopped dead, because there she was.

Lynette.

Sun-starved complexion. Wavy black hair. Piercing green eyes. And a tight, compact body—currently swamped in ten pounds of apron, but it was her.

I caused a bit of a stir with my appearance, so it didn't take long for her to notice me. She froze, face shifting into an expression of pure shock with a momentary surge of fear. It hurt to see that, even after so long. A plate tumbled out of her hands and clanged off the floor, bouncing loudly several times before it came to rest.

"Lyn," I said softly into the sudden silence. "I need your help."

She swirled through several different emotions, open-mouthed but silent. Lynette looked very put-together in the way magical girls always did, but not even her Style could completely erase the dark circles under her wide eyes.

"How..." Lynette shook her head, picked up the fallen plate, and set it aside to untie her ridiculous apron. She threw it aside and stalked down the aisle. She grabbed my arm and hauled me outside with enough force that my feet left the ground entirely, then swung me around and slammed me into the outer wall. "What _is_ this, Li-zi? You can't just, you can't just show up and tell me you—how did you even _find_ me? Did those sanctimonious teddybears finally decide I need to die?"

There was something heartrendingly vulnerable in her sunken eyes. I couldn't see her emotions in the Veil, since the Veil didn't touch her mind, but I could still _feel_ the echoes directly. She was angry... but she was also weary, so weary.

"The sanctimonious teddybears threw me out," I informed her, voice soft.

"Oh." Lynette's grip on my raiment went slack, and she laughed bitterly. "Good for you."

Swallowing thickly, I set my hands on her shoulders and squeezed. "It is good. But it is also problematic. I'm in trouble, Lyn. That's why I tracked you down. I really do need your help."

Lynette shrugged away from my touch, but I felt the echo of her longing as she pulled away. "You _left_ me," she growled, voice cracking.

"Lyn," I asked, the words sticking in my throat, "how long has it been since it let you sleep?"

"Oh, _now_ you care about that!" Lynette exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "Well, fuck off! Maybe I'm glad, did you ever think of that? I haven't slept in a year and I'm _glad_ , 'cause the last thing I'd want is to dream if I might dream about _you_."

I flinched, tears swelling in my eyes. I could feel the echoes of her grief, and that was the only thing keeping me together even as it tore me apart. It would hurt her even more if I let her drive me off.

I met her faintly bloodshot eyes. "In every moment that followed that night, I wanted to stand by you. I hated the Beacon for trying to turn me against you, Lyn. I've spent every moment since wishing I could've chosen you."

"Then why?!" Lynette cried, shoving me against the wall for emphasis. "Why didn't you?!"

* * *

 _March 17th, 2026_  
_Las Vegas, Nevada_  
_Orleans Square_

"Mom, this is my girlfriend, Eelesia Eirian."

Standing behind her, I peeked over the top of Lynette's head and offered up a small, nervous wave. Lynette's mother was taller and curlier than Lynette, with the kind of seemingly effortless classical beauty that really made me thankful for the sleek fitness and extra inches—both height and cup-size—I'd gained by becoming a magical girl.

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Vollen," I said politely.

"It's lovely to meet you, Eelesia. Please call me Cyndi. Come in, come in. I've heard all about you. Lyn's been talking about you for ages and _ages_ and ages. I'm looking forward to _finally_ getting to see what all the fuss is about."

"Mo-om!" Lynette whined.

Cyndi Vollen played innocent, and sat us down to dinner. The apartment was a small two-bedroom on the ground floor in a row with a dozen more just like it. Inside, it was sort of classy, if cramped, with actual framed paintings decorating the walls. The meal was tacos.

After dinner, I asked Lynette if she wanted to go sit by the pool.

"Sure?" she replied with a shrug. "Lemme get my suit."

I stopped her with a mysterious grin. "Don't bother. I've got something better."

Lynette's eyebrows shot up as she made an intrigued little, "Ooh?"

We let ourselves out through the back patio. The sun shone off the rooftops but it was low enough that the swimming pool had just fallen into shade. The pool was an unremarkable rectangle, centered within the larger rectangles of collective patios and the complex itself. A half-dozen kids played in the water, while a few of Lynette's neighbors supervised.

"Not much privacy," Lynette observed.

I giggled and ducked behind her smaller frame as best I could. "Just wait. Ascendant over these innocent hearts, Gentle Psion Eternal Solace shall raise the sum of all passion to oppose this advent of despair!"

"Li-zi!" Lynette hissed frantically, trying to block me from sight as my simulated jeans and blouse sublimated away. "What are you doing?!"

A violet gem set in a short strap of black leather mirrored itself into place vertically between my now-bare breasts, before folded-thick bands of sheer purple cloth raced out from it in a starburst, flowing around my chest like a second set of ribs. I felt that process repeat itself on my spine and hips, criss-crossing my body before flowing out to frame my legs with dangling tassels. The rest of my raiment followed, including one part that was new.

"This," I said, grabbing Lynette's hand as I thrust my left arm, and the bracer strapped to it, up above my head.

Before anyone had time to notice me, a ripple in space radiated out from my bracer, sweeping over the swimming pool and the entire apartment complex surrounding it. The gem on the bracer lit up bright, a shimmering aurora.

The sky broke open, kaleidoscoping away along perpendicular lines until blocky patterns of reflected artifice stretched into infinity. The splash of children playing, the murmur of activity, and the rumble of the wider city all faded to dead silence.

Lynette moved out toward the pool and looked around. "We're alone."

"Yep," I agreed. "What do you think of my new Worldshift?"

"Are we in the Crossroads?" Lynette asked incredulously. "Did you take my entire apartment complex into the Crossroads?"

I moved up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist, pressing my breasts into her back while I nuzzled her hair. "Nope. Transporting the physicality would move the people as well. That would defeat the purpose." I squeezed her and smiled into her neck. "Also, I have nowhere near enough mana for that."

Lynette sighed, snuggling back against me as she lifted my new bracer in her hand. "Alright, regale me with your genius, then. What is this thing?"

"Are you _sure_ you want to hear it?" I teased. "We've got this copy of the whole pool area all to ourselves where no one can interrupt us skinny-dipping."

Lynette twisted around to give me a dry look of amused skepticism. "If you don't tell me now, you're gonna start babbling in the middle of the make-outs."

I pouted. "I only did that once."

"You were very excited," Lynette allowed blandly. She poked my boob. "Go on. I want to know how you did this. I don't know much about raiments but even I know you can't just add pieces to them."

"It was more like doing surgery, on my own soul," I agreed. "Most modules don't have any realspace components, but it turns out they _can_ if you know how to fit a pentaractal peg in a hyperspherical hole."

Lynette blinked at me. "Was that one of your nerdy math jokes?"

"Yes."

"Oh, good."

I stuck my tongue out at her. "But that's why I had to build mine custom. Usually what you want from a Worldshift module is just to get the fight out of the real world where things are breakable. To get _this_ effect requires a physical focusing locus, so most Worldshift modules don't bother."

"So we _are_ in the Crossroads," Lynette said, twisting the rest of the way to embrace me front-to-front. "But..."

I grinned, stroking my thumbs over her hips. "We're in the Crossroads' reflection of your apartment complex, but stitched back together into a single whole. My spellwork traces the reflections _into_ the Crossroads and skews us into alignment with the most orthogonal hyperseams, causing us to perceive a cohesive three-dimensional space. Neat, huh?"

"You can _do_ that?" Lynette blurted, impressed.

I nodded, grinning.

"How does that work though? Is this like an optical illusion that'll fall apart if we don't stay in this exact spot?" Lynette wondered.

"No," I explained. "The illusion is four-dimensional, and this is just the hypersurface we're seeing it through, so we can move around as much as we want."

Lynette scrunched her face cutely. "Didn't you tell me 'hypersurface' is the same thing as just, like, space?"

"Volume, to be specific, but for this, yeah," I agreed, grinning at her.

"Ohhh, I get it!" Lynette bounced happily in my arms. "That's wild, though. I don't know how you get your head around this five-dimensional stuff."

"I'm very talented," I pronounced as I leaned in to kiss her. Lynette's eyes fluttered closed as our lips touched, and I slid my hands up under the back of her shirt, caressing.

"I believe," Lynette said, breaking the kiss to nuzzle along my cheek, "you said something about skinny-dipping? And _moving around_ as much as we want?"

"I did say that," I conceded as a frisson of heat and want raced through me. I found her mouth again and lost myself in the feel of her lips, while our twining tongues rubbed slickly like two bodies making love.

Lynette pulled back, breathing hard, and stepped out of my arms just long enough to slip her top off. She tossed it aside and ran her hands up the bands of raiment fabric wrapping my ribs, stopping when she reached my breasts to give me an expectant look.

I dispelled my raiment. It folded out from under her touch, exposing my nipples to the palms of her hands. Lynette fondled my bare flesh, pulling close as I wrapped my arms around her and trapped her arms between us so I could slip my hands into her shorts and kneed her tight little butt.

Lynette leaned up and kissed me hard, moaning as I pressed my thigh between her legs. Her shorts were in the way, so I paused for a moment to shove them down her legs, but once she kicked them aside there was nothing between us but skin.

I guided us onto the nearest poolside chair and pulled Lynette down on top of me to resume making out now that we were both completely nude. I felt the slickness and heat between her legs slide along my thigh, and I ground against her as she pressed her thigh down against my flushed vulva in turn.

As usually happened when we did this, I felt a climax building up from the friction. I let it happen, mostly ignoring it to focus on the delicious feel of Lynette's hot body all over me as we wriggled and squirmed just to feel as much of each other as we could.

The orgasm came, and I shuddered, moaning into Lynette's mouth, but it was a mild climax, not worth interrupting the make-outs.

Eventually, though, Lynette broke the kiss to grind her pussy against me with a needy whine. I took advantage of my super-strength to lift her by her hips straight onto my face, where I immediately dove into her drenched slit and started working my tongue on her clit.

"Aah! Oh, Li-zi, oh fuck!" Lynette gasped as she twined her fingers through my hair.

Her legs flailed at bit before she found purchase on my shoulders. I shifted one hand onto her back to hold her in place, freeing up my other hand to tease her holes while I made out with her clit.

"Aah, ahhh! Yes! Fuck! I feel it! You're gonna make me cum!"

I pressed my thumb into her pussy and licked harder. Lynette's panting moans got more and more desperate until she finally cried out and shook in my grip, twitching and shaking against my face.

She flopped back as it ended, and I let her down gently until she was laying with her butt on my chest and her head between my legs. Her wide-open vulva quivered with aftershocks right in front of my face, where I couldn't resist nuzzling it while she calmed down.

"I love you so much, Li-zi," Lynette panted.

I giggled into her taut thigh. "I love you too, Lyn."

After a little while, once Lynette caught her breath, she rolled off of me and the chair, standing up on unsteady legs beside me. I leaned over and kissed her hip, tugging her towards my lap, but she wriggled away, giggling.

I sat up and watched her, smiling as she danced her way around the edge of the pool. It seemed like she was having fun with the novelty of having such a public space be completely private, flaunting her nudity in a way she never would've if she'd actually had more of an audience than me.

She stopped, halfway around, and grinned at me across the water. "This is so great."

With a happy bounce, I stood up and stepped off the edge, plunging into the pool with a splash. I swam across and folded my arms on the concrete lip directly under her, gazing up and enjoying the view of her nude body from this angle. Lynette playfully nudged my head with her toe.

I laughed and pushed off, floating away from her on my back. With a splash, she joined me in the water and surfaced between my legs. She grabbed my thighs, dragging my pussy towards her face with a teasing slowness.

"Eternal Solace," boomed a sudden, loud, majestic manly voice.

"Gah!" Lynnette yelped, even as I flinched and went under, saved from inhaling water only by my Environment module.

A little black stuffed lion stood at the edge of the pool, bristling with urgency as it continued, "Cease this dalliance and prepare, you are both in danger."

"What the _fuck_?!" Lynette blurted.

"It's a Beacon avatar, Lyn," I explained. "In danger from what?"

" _That's_ a Beacon avatar?" Lyn wondered. "Why does it sound like Dan Green?"

It ignored her and answered me. "That most vile of all beings, drawn here by your tampering with the threads between realities. This foe is—"

Grey spikes suddenly burst from the avatar's stuffed body, impaling it in every direction from within. Lynette screamed, and I could understand why. My eyes burned just to look at it. It was _wrong_ , a visual glitch that refused to resolve, razor-pointed shards with no texture, flat gray in a way that utterly ignored the ambient light conditions.

I closed my eyes and opened my Sight, even as I reached for Lynette.

The hyperseams were obvious in my Sight, the illusion revealed for the trick it was. A writhing mass of fractal shadows curled through the gaps between cells to reveal the incomprehensible limbs reaching in from outside the local hypervolume.

I winced in pain and dizziness as I caught glimpses of the thing casting those shadows through the gaps in the Crossroads' exotic geometry.

The gray spikes sucked back down to nothing as the Horror pulled its higher-dimensional version of shiv out of the Beacon avatar. New limbs appeared in my Sight, reaching for our legs. I wrapped my arms around Lynette and kicked off the bottom of the pool, throwing us both clear out of the water in a massive plume of spray.

A black ball covered in glossy writhing tendrils bloomed into reality, hovering just above the churning water. It remained there as I landed lightly on the concrete and steadied Lynette. I frowned. It could've grabbed us easily, but it had let me dodge. The Horror was toying with us.

Lynette clung to me, her face set in a determined scowl. "Li-zi! Why aren't you transforming?" she hissed.

The tentacle-ball slurped into itself and vanished, while my Sight revealed the mass of limbs shifting around. I couldn't be sure, but the density and size of limbs suggested a more central part of the Horror's body.

"If I tried, it would stop me," I said, very sure of that.

A voice like a thousand whispering children replied, "Clever soul..."

I flinched, clinging to Lynette as much as she clung to me, huddled together as we were, naked and wet. The whispering chorus laughed, a distant sound on the edge of hearing.

"What's going on, where is it?" Lynette hissed. I could feel her shaking.

"All around us," I replied softly.

"Yeah?" Lynette said, shaking. "Hey! Creepy thing! What do you want?!"

A gray, oblong orb, roughly the shape of a human head but twice as big, popped into reality above us. A neck stretched down and then stopped, while a mass of wiggling black worm-like things appeared and elongated, twining together into the rough shape of a floor-length suit jacket.

The slender humanoid figure loomed over us, bending down as if to examine us from a polite distance with its blank, faceless head. Looking at it made my eyes feel like each contained its own gravitational singularity, crushing the soft tissue down to a point-mass.

Beside me, Lynette was even worse off. She started breathing more and more raggedly as she stared fixedly at the thing's textureless gray lack-of-face. I tried to cover her eyes, but a loop of black tendrils appeared around my wrist, stopping me. It overpowered me easily, despite my strength.

"I am here for _you_ , Lynette Deia Vollen," the whispering chorus intoned. "Shed your fear, come closer, embrace the lie and become more."

I couldn't speak. Something pressed on my vocal cords, silencing me. In my Sight I glimpsed small touches, caresses from outside reality that neither of us could feel, and that I could only see indirectly. Tiny touches, combing across Lynette's _brain_. Whatever it was, it was jamming my direct empathic senses.

"What lie?" Lynette asked faintly as her grip on me slackened.

"Power," the whispering chorus replied. "Purpose. Accept me, become my piece on this playground and I will give you a _soul_."

I gasped. This was a _recruitment_. Could a Horror even be a patron? It had sounded like their agents were all things other than magical girls, but... the Beacon never actually _said_ that outright...

"You mean, like..." Lynette glanced back at me even as she took an unsteady step towards the Horror.

"Accept me, and you will become more than a match for your lover," the whispering chorus promised.

The pressure on my vocal chords increased. Numbness pushed in on my empathic senses like a blanket, slowing my mind, and Lynette slipped from my arms completely. I relaxed and let her go. I wanted to let her go. She was the only one here.

"I... want to be... powerful..." Lynette said.

The faceless gray head nodded, and Lynette's body lit up brilliantly in the Sight, brighter and brighter until the luminescence of the attaching soul seared away all else. Pain and the Sight met in the nothing, and the Sight ceded. Reality shrank down to the sliver of spatial volume perceptible by human senses.

And then Lynette screamed, crying out in pure agony. Bands of rainbow light butchered her flesh, peeling her apart like an anatomy diagram one layer at a time. Her screams only lasted until her lungs separated from her diaphragm, but her separated parts continued to twitch and flex in obvious torment.

It was a beautiful, wondrous aberration. The elegant remaking of Lynette's body revealed and slowed, every change felt as it happened over the course of several seconds.

The rainbow light put her back together just as efficiently as it had cut her apart. Imperfections removed, flawless in function and form, Lynette's petite nude body had gained the ageless youth of a magical girl.

With a broken gasp, Lynette collapsed onto the cement, shuddering. Beyond pain, beyond fear, the gift of the revealed ensouling left her shocked and malleable. Lovely in supplication.

"It is done," the whispering chorus intoned. "Rise now, my Fierce Huntress Shade."

The Fierce Huntress Shade didn't rise immediately. She lifted her head, but only enough to lock her gaze on something else and reach towards it with her hand. "Li-zi..."

The syllables belonged to a nonsense concept, but there was a body attached as well, and that body could move in response to her plea. It didn't, though, because the swelling need and burgeoning fear were—

"No," boomed the voice of the Beacon.

Another little black stuffed lion bounded onto the scene. It skidded to a stop in front of the Horror and erupted with a brilliant golden radiance.

The cloying fog of numbness tore away and clarity returned in a staggering rush. I clutched my head, reeling, as I became an I again. A sense of self crashed into the mind and the mind warped around it to become _my_ mind. I was Eelesia, I was alive, I'd just watched my girlfriend scream in agony and terror, _and that mattered_.

I looked up and forced my way through the disorientation with a wild sob. "Oh Lyn!"

Reality moved. As the little stuffed lion and the towering faceless man-shape squared off, seams appeared everywhere, separating walls from floors from furniture. The shifting dimensional topography carried Lynette away even as I lunged desperately towards her, and my momentum carried me into the expanding seam.

Everything kaleidoscoped backwards and I staggered to a halt in the midst of a dozen of Lynette's neighbors, back in the real world. Lynette was nowhere to be seen. I whipped around, spotting the Beacon avatar as it appeared next to me.

"Where is she?!" I demanded frantically.

Meanwhile, the collection of people I'd reappeared among started making unimportant remarks about my state of nudity, while some of the children started laughing. I activated my Style and all those noises trailed off in confusion, since obviously I was fully clothed after all.

The Beacon avatar merely shook its head. "That is no longer your concern."

"What." Before the bystanders could collect themselves, I snatched the stuffed lion up and leaped, bounding off a window sill to land on the roof. "You left her behind! Where is she?! I need to help her!"

"That is not the case," the Beacon told me. "We are sorry we could not act in time to prevent it, but the girl you know as Lynette belongs to the Horror now."

I made an incoherent noise of frustration and worry. "So tell me where she ended up so I can go make sure she's okay!"

"We do not know," the Beacon said, "and we would not inform you in any case."

I froze, giving the stuffed lion a hard look. "Why not?"

"As a tool of the Horrors, Shade is your sworn enemy," the Beacon said. "It is clear that you do not yet understand this."

I dropped my arm to let the stuffed lion dangle at my side. "How can you possibly expect me to just abandon her?"

"A soul beholden to a Horror is the most intolerable of anathema," it explained.

I shook my head, not dignifying that with a response. "She'll come home eventually. I can wait here for her. Dad'll understand."

The stuffed lion wiggled out of my grip. I let it go. "That is not a permissible course of action, Eternal Solace. We cannot allow a vassal of the Beacon to fraternize with an abomination."

"That's nice," I told it blandly. "I'm staying."

"You cannot!" There was an edge in the Beacon's voice, now. "A deliberate act of betrayal such as you intend would forsake your allegiance!"

I glanced down at the little black stuffed lion. "If you want me to choose between you and Lyn, I'm going to choose Lyn. How could you imagine I wouldn't?"

The Beacon was silent for a moment. "It was a condition of your contract that so long as you served the Beacon we would not intercede in the matter of your father's abuses."

I stiffened.

"If you betray us, we will of course revert to our prior intentions, which we understand is something you do not want," the Beacon told me.

"No," I whispered, clenching my fists. "You _can't_."

"That is not the case," it said. "If you wish to prevent your father's crimes from being punished, you must maintain your standing."

My eyes blurred as the scope of the trap became clear to me. I had to protect Dad, so I had to follow the Beacon's rules, no matter what. I turned to glare at the little stuffed lion. It stared back at me, stately, as it always did.

* * *

 _May 8th, 2027_  
_Ligeia Mare, Titan_  
_Clementine's Hollow_

"The Beacon had blackmail on me," I explained softly. "They caught me in their trap before we met, Lyn."

Lynette surged with momentary hope, snuffed out just as quickly by bleak self-recrimination. She turned away from me and buried her face in her hands. She made a sound halfway between a giggle and a sob. Then she looked up and noticed that we'd drawn something of a crowd.

Stiffening, Lynette whirled around and grabbed my arm again. She marched me around the wall to a metal staircase and then up onto a catwalk leading away from the plaza.

"Okay," Lynette said, dropping my arm and gritting her teeth. "Okay. So they blackmailed you. And you... went along with them. For a _year_."

I fell into step beside her and caught her hand. I didn't try to hold on, but Lynette didn't throw me off like I suspected she might.

"The Beacon hates Horrors with a genocidal fanaticism," I reminded her. "There was no hope of reasoning with them."

"I know _that_ ," Lynette said, scowling. "But you're here now. If I wasn't worth what they had on you, what was? Or am I supposed to believe you just up and changed your mind. After _a year_."

"No," I admitted softly. "They betrayed me first."

"Fuck!" Lynette sighed. "What could they've possibly threatened you with? I thought you loved me, Eelesia."

"I did," I told her, and if the ache in my heart was anything to go by, "I still do."

Lynette ripped her hand out of mine and tugged at her hair with a despairing whine. "Then what stupid threat could possibly be more important than that?!"

"They weren't threatening _me_ , Lyn," I explained. "They were threatening my dad."

Lynette looked at me for a long moment, and then slumped. "Damn it. I like your dad. He's nice. Okay, what did they have on _him_?"

I bit my lip, and told her, "They knew that I'm having sex with him."

Lynette walked straight into a wrought iron utility pole. My head snapped up at the _gong_ sound and I winced. Lynette clutched her head while she shot me a dirty look. There was a dent in the pole.

"You mean, the whole time we were together, that mysterious other lover you refused to tell me anything about, was your dad?!" Lynette shrilled.

"Dad and I aren't _lovers_ ," I protested with a pout. "When one of us can't bear to be alone with our lust, sometimes we have sex, but... well, you've seen how we are. He's a good dad."

Lynette frowned, clearly conflicted, but eventually she simply asked, "So, what happened?"

"The Beacon found a loophole," I explained. "The police found out and arrested him. Dad was going to go to jail, and... it was sick. Dad _never_ abused me, or my trust in him, but they barely even bothered to pretend that it was even _about_ that."

"Shit," Lynette blurted. "Kale's in jail?"

"No," I shook my head. "I broke him out and hid him in the scraplands."

For a long while, Lynette didn't say anything. Then she started laughing, full body-shaking laughter that brought tears to her eyes. "Only you, Li-zi."

I pouted at her. "What else was I supposed to do? I _tried_ to tell them, but they didn't care."

Lynette shook her head, mirthful. "Okay, sure. But you have to admit, Li-zi, you have the weirdest problems. You incestuous weirdo."

"It would be different," I responded quietly, "if the police were trying to protect me from Dad, misguided as that would be, but like I said, it wasn't about that."

"Then what was it about?" Lynette asked, skeptical.

I frowned. "It was about looking for someone to hate. That hate, and the _glee_ at having society's permission to dehumanize someone into a target for punishment." I caught Lynette's eye. "A justification, not justice."

Lynette went pale, then she sighed and gave me a scathing look. "Ouch, Li-zi. Okay. Yes, I get it. Fucking your daughter is _just like_ serving a Horror. It gives everyone a great excuse to hate you, and nobody cares about your side of the story. Augh, fine. You win."

"Sorry," I offered, with a hopeful smile.

"What do you actually need from me anyhow?" Lynette asked. "If you need a place to lay low, you're probably better off camping in the scraplands. My boarding house doesn't allow men."

I blinked. "It doesn't?" I shook my head. "No, the problem is me and Dad are fugitives. I can't do anything about the Beacon, but it's not the Beacon hunting Dad. It's the government."

Lynette peered at me. "So where do I come into this?"

"I have a plan," I told her. "I know how to get what I need to find and break into the data center in Washington D.C. where every federal arrest warrant and criminal record is centrally coordinated. I want to break in and erase Dad's warrant."

"Shit," Lynette opined.

"Having a Darkness Mage to get me in and out undetected would help a lot..."

Lynette looked a me for a long moment, and smiled. "You're gonna owe me big time for this. I'm talking, fancy dinner, oil massage, the works. Deal?"

"Deal!" I replied with a slightly hysterical giggle as I glomped onto her and clutched her tight. "Thank you, Lyn."

* * *

 _May 9th, 2027_  
_Washington, D.C._  
_Downtown_

A wide stone path, lined with trimmed trees and low planters, circled the boxy brown building like a moat. Rows of cramped, sunken windows filled the walls of each connected subsection in a grid, all of which were raised on blocky pillars above a hollow inner structure which extended below street-level, reinforcing the impression of a moat. A massive squarish slab perched on top, overhanging the sides.

Unfortunately for me, first-world governments weren't entirely magically incompetent. A network of highly placed patriotic sorcerers usually ensured that any truly important security measures were backed up by magic. Or so the rumors went.

The wards on the FBI complex were real enough, however they came to be. The fields of mana stood out crisply against the wispy colors in the Veil, isolating the interior from sorcerous scrying and walling out fey. Of more concern were the trip-fields stretching out from normal space around the whole building, set up to activate an alarm if anything extradimensional tried to enter the building through normal space.

"What do you see?" Lynette murmured as she walked along beside me, hand in mine, on the opposite side of the street.

"The way in is meant to look clear, but there are hidden triggers set up to be tripped by a passing soul," I whispered back. "Set up that way, it has to be specifically targeting magical girls. I don't think we're the first magical girls to have this idea."

"Drat," Lynette opined. "What do we do, then?"

"Give me a moment." I closed my eyes to study the wards more closely, trusting Lynette to guide me down the sidewalk while I was distracted. I traced each trap, following the mana structures until I was sure. "The trip-fields only cover the euclidean directions."

"Is there any other kind, really?" Lynette joked.

"We can get in with my Worldshift," I explained. "These wards don't cover the Crossroads."

Lynette gave me a deadpan look.

I grimaced, slumping a little. "The perturbation of hyperspace is small and temporary. In dozens of uses, nothing like the first time happened again..."

"I know," Lynette sighed. "It told me. It was already watching me before that."

I just nodded, and gave her hand a squeeze. Scanning ahead, I spotted the entrance to a parking garage and motioned towards it. Together, we turned off the sidewalk and ducked behind the dividing pillar.

"Camera," Lynette noted, glancing up.

We kept moving until we found a blind spot. I glanced around to double check, then chanted out my transformation aria. Lynette watched me wistfully as my simulated outfit disintegrated, and my raiment unfolded itself over my body.

Smirking, Lynette struck a pose and declared, "Fear the silent void! Awaken, righteous Shade of the Fierce Huntress!"

Her simulated clothes exploded off her body, leaving her nude for barely an eyeblink before her raiment began to appear. Set in black fabric, silver rings arranged themselves over each of her hips like a row of scales. That formed the waistband of a set of black vinyl bloomers, sturdy and thick, but tight and cut like panties rather than shorts. A bra formed in the same vein, cupping her breast in sturdy black vinyl while looping rows of ring-scales wrapped around her torso, followed by armored gloves and tightly laced boots with shin-guards. Lastly, a mantle formed across her shoulders, and a long drape of airy white cloth trailed down her arms, like a gossamer cloak with most of the middle cut out so only the sides remained.

We shared a smile. The circumstances were less than ideal, but this was the first time we'd actually done magical girl stuff together.

"Ready?" Lynette asked.

I nodded. "Ready."

Lynette flung one of her mantle drapes at me, and I caught it and wrapped it firmly around my wrist. In the next moment, my normal vision went black, leaving only my Sight. Only the vaguest shadow of the building around us remained in the distribution of veilforms, but Lynette and I were both outlined clearly in the mana fields of her invisibility spell. Her soul shined from outward, and behind her, in the vague sea of color, the fortress of mana we'd come to invade.

"Okay," Lynette said. "Let's go. You can still see, right?"

"Not with my eyes, but I can follow you," I told her.

"Duh, that's what I meant," Lynette said with an eyeroll.

We darted out of the parking garage, sprinting across the street. I watched where she placed her feet, and matched her step for step. We passed over the stone sidewalk and into the open space under the building. Once we reached a good spot, I tugged Lynette to a stop.

"Here goes," I whispered, as I activated Worldshift.

With a surge of power, we were shunted into the Crossroads at an offset, as every reflection of the building aligned to form a three-dimensional picture of the whole structure.

As soon as we were through, Lynette dispelled her invisibility and I blinked at the sudden light. I looked around and spotted the entrance I wanted.

"Come on," I said. "This way."

I infused my hand with glowing red defiance and melted my way through a wall of bullet-proof glass, then led Lynette into a service stairwell.

"How do you know where to go?" Lynette asked as we bounded upwards from landing to landing.

"Empathic spying," I admitted.

We arrived at the right floor, and another security checkpoint. Lynette jerked her thumb at the reinforced steel door and quirked an eyebrow at me. I gestured for her to go ahead.

"Is that the thing where you can, like, see through other people's eyes?" Lynette asked as she tried to wedge her fingers into the gap, since the door didn't have a handle.

"I can't _just_ look through someone's eyes," I explained. "When I echo a whole mind like that, my own perceptions are subsumed. I see what they see, feel what they feel, want what they want... It's disorienting."

Lynette reared back and slammed a knife-hand into the door gap. With a grunt, she twisted, pulled, and started ripping the door out of its frame. "Right. Empathic, not Psychic."

With the door out of the way, I followed Lynette into the National Crime Information Center. "Psychic Mages have it way too easy," I said, playfully petulant.

"Would you trade?" Lynette snarked.

"Nope!" I declared airily.

After another few minutes of searching, I found the right office. I had Lynette cloak us again, and dropped us back into the real world. The outline of the office distorted until it was gone, and the Veil returned, along with the sounds of activity.

Based on those sounds, and on the ripples in the Veil, someone was sitting at the desk in this office. I narrowed my focus and opened myself.

* * *

It was amazing what really thorough invisibility and invasive empathic spying could accomplish. By the time Shaun Galhager left his office for lunch, I knew everything I needed to log in with his credentials and navigate the database with Lynette's help.

"Down one two three four five more, there," Lynette whispered. "Eirian, Kale, fugitive status, sex offender pending."

"Thanks," I whispered. "Doing this without you would've been a nightmare."

Delete. Next. Delete. Next. Rescind. Next. And so on, until Kale Eirian was nothing but an unremarkable citizen. Lynette double-checked, since she could actually see the screen.

"That's the last one, let's get out of here," Lynette hissed.

"Not yet," I whispered, navigating back to the sex offender registry. "Guide me to the filter settings."

"What? Why?" Lynette hissed. "What're you doing? Mister Agent could come back any minute!"

"My good deed for the day," I replied firmly. "This registry includes men and women who've never committed a serious crime, who were innocent or naive enough to confide in their therapist or doctor or whoever that they have pedophillic urges. They're being punished for the great American thought-crime, and nothing more."

Lynette made a confused noise. "What the fuck, Lace? You're helping pedophiles now?"

"These are innocents, who've been cast as born rapists through no fault of their own," I replied harshly, "who've proven themselves _not_ to be rapists more thoroughly than most normal people ever _can_. It's not fair, for them to be treated like pariahs. Besides, you _know_ what happens to adults over thirty who become magical girls."

"Are you... matchmaking?" Lynette asked incredulously.

"No, but there _are_ a lot of lonely loli girls in the market for this kind of information. I can give them more to work with and make enough money to support Dad at the same time. Now c'mon! Filter settings."

"Ugh, fine," Lynette replied, bumping my hands aside. "There, let's see, oh, huh, okay, non-offenders, reported by, and there. Now what?"

I pulled my phone out of my Pocket and opened the camera app in manual mode, feeling my way around the haptic screen to set the focus and exposure from memory. Pointing it at the screen, I moved my hand with superhuman speed, tapping the shutter button and letting go just long enough for the phone to slip out of the invisibility effect and take the picture. I caught it again before it could fall, rendering it invisible once more. I scrolled down and repeated the process until I had the whole list.

"Okay, _now_ we can go," I told Lynette.

* * *

 _May 9th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Winterbright Scraplands_

The endless pattern of the Crossroads got distorted, this far out in the scraplands. Right angles didn't add up right, and perpendicular lines didn't meet at right angles. The Escher-esque reflections of city were smaller and smeared together under a sourceless snow-glare that lit everything.

Beside me, as we skimmed along in weightlessness, Lynette shivered. I grabbed her hand, sharing the protection of my Environment with her. She smiled at me.

The route I'd mapped into the better-traveled regions of the Crossroads was long and twisty, but I got us back out to where I'd stashed Dad without trouble.

The city 'blocks' were much smaller out here, as were the spaces between. Dad and I had our camp strung out between two such blocks. One looked like six different bathrooms and a bunch of fireplaces had gotten mashed together and then turned inside out, while the other was made entirely of patchwork sections of various beds.

Dad sat on the bed cube, reading a book. He looked up and started to wave, but he froze when he saw Lynette behind me. I landed on the edge of the block with a creaky bounce and a sheepish smile, Lynette swinging nimbly into place beside me.

"I'm back," I said. "Dad, you remember Lyn, right?"

"Ah," Dad said. "Yes. Hello. It's nice to see you again... you're a magical girl too?"

"Yeah," Lynette agreed, glancing down at herself and her revealing black and silver raiment. "I wasn't back when you knew me, though! Sorry about the whole, getting arrested, thing."

Dad looked at me. "Did you tell her?"

I picked my way across the bedscape and plopped down in a comfortable spot. "Yeah, she knows. I needed her to understand."

Dad shrunk into himself a little. "Alright."

"Dad." I crawled over and hugged him. "Guess what, though? My plan worked. You're officially not a fugitive."

Dad blinked at me, and at Lynette, straightening up. "And you didn't get caught?"

"Nope!" Lynette interjected.

"Thank goodness," Dad sighed. "That's just the digital records, though. We still can't go home, sweetheart."

"I know," I assured him. "There are lots of places to which we _can_ go, now."

"Some of them in the inner solar system, even!" Lynette added brightly.

I giggled and looked over at her. "Why _did_ you move all the way to Titan?"

Lynette shrugged dismissively, even as she surged with protectiveness and helpless frustration. "My mom knows about magic now, ask me how."

"...how?" Dad asked.

"It turns out, getting pregnant with a demon is enough to defeat the Veil," Lynette said, expression fixed, tone aggressively light. "The rest is a long story."

"That's okay," I said softly, "but come over here so I can hug you."

Lynette snorted and flopped down next to me. Dad shrugged off his winter coat and put his arm around me. For a few minutes, I sat snuggled between Lynette and Dad, basking in the closeness and relief.

Idly, I opened my Sight for a moment, and immediately let out a tiny scream of surprise at the disembodied soul hovering right in front of me.

"Huh? What? What is it?"

"Li-zi?"

The soul drifted back a little, and started moving around, almost like it was agitated. It was familiar, too. There was a long, heavy pause while I stared at it and guilt knotted up inside me.

"It's Radical Maiden Lyrical Sniper," I said, and the soul halted. "I don't know if she got pulled through when we escaped, Dad, or if she's haunting me because I killed her, but she's here."

"Wait, what?" Lynette blurted. "You killed who? Why?"

"She got Dad arrested in the first place." I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Jasmine. You were just trying to help. I do know that."

The soul started bobbing around again, more aggressively.

"Jasmine," I said. "I'm not a Spirit Mage. I can't see you. I can only see your soul... so, um, circle clockwise for yes, counter for no?"

The soul hung there for a long moment, before slowly circling clockwise.

"Okay," I said. "Do you get that I was just, really upset that you hurt my dad?"

A pause, before a jerky counter-clockwise half circle.

I sighed, and Dad gave me a squeeze. "Well, I was. I know that's not fair to you. You thought you were helping."

Uncertain clockwise wobble. Lynette glanced between me and the empty spot of air I was talking to, eyebrows arched.

"Do you want me to feel bad?" I asked. "Because I already feel bad."

Emphatic clockwise circle.

I sighed. "Sorry. Look, do you want me to try to fix this? I think I can. I met a Reinforcement Mage who had a resurrection spell a little while ago. I'll find her for you if you want. I owe you at least that much."

A pause, and then rapid clockwise circling.

I smiled. "Okay then."

"Was that a yes?" Dad asked.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"So!" Lynette broke in. "I guess if I'm sticking around, I'm gonna help you find this person. Where do we start?"

"Her name is Cameron," I shared. "We need an internet connection."

"Oh, you have her e-mail?" Dad asked.

"No," I admitted. "I didn't get her number or her e-mail, actually."

"How're you going to contact her, then?" Dad wondered.

"I'm not." I smiled innocently. "First, we need to watch porn!"


	7. The Noodle Incident

We open on the rings of Saturn, backlit and halo'd by the sun, as the real sun shines through the vast stained glass rendering of the iconic image. Our view tracks backwards, pulling out from the image and descending to reveal first the googly eyes and noodly shoulders of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, presiding over a banquet table which is covered entirely by a shallow pool filled with reams of rubber medical tubing, slathered in lube, but in context it could almost be mistaken for a giant-sized plate of noodles.

We cut to the aisle. A young woman approaches, her busty curves and rolling hips squeezed into and barely contained by a shimmery green tube dress. Cameron's face is strikingly lovely, but soft and bright in the luminous colored shadows bathing her form. Her hair is short and black, splaying out from her head in artfully messy waves. We follow her as she steps up to an alter, upon which a smaller statue stands with no banquet table in sight, just an ordinary plate of pasta.

Cameron goes down to her knees. Up close, we see her breasts nearly spill out of her tight dress as she bows her head.

Halo'd by stained glass Saturn, the Flying Spaghetti Monster's eyes glow. "We welcome you into our noodly embrace. What do you offer to the great pasta?"

Back with Cameron at the mundane alter, she sits back on her haunches and says, "I offer these meatballs to flavor your greatness." She tugs the front of her dress down just a little, but that's enough for her big bouncy tits to burst free, bare and succulent.

"I offer this flesh to sate the Third Hunger," she continues, as she tugs the bottom of her dress up to bunch around her waist. We push in on the plush globes of her ass, dropping down so we have a clear view of her hand when it appears between her thighs. Her fingers ply into her pussy, gliding slickly through her folds as she rubs a circle into her vulva.

Glowing eyes flare. "Your offering is worthy. Your offering is delicious. Cum, and become the pasta!"

Cameron's flushed face gasps up as we focus in on her. "Yes, your noodliness!"

We cut to a low angle, from the perspective of the small statue, as Cameron stands and brings her plump wet pussy into center frame. She plunges two fingers into her wet hole, moaning as she uses those fingers to fuck herself.

From directly overhead, we see Cameron climax as she masturbates over the plate of noodles.

"The pasta welcomes you."

We push in on the plate of noodles, further and further, until it seems to be growing, the plate expanding to hide the altar.

Back on Cameron, she gasps and looks down. We cut to a close up of her legs, and see her feet buried under a pile of lubed rubber tubing. The giant fake noodles wiggle around her ankles, pulled by off-screen hands.

Up close on her hips, we see wriggling rubber tubes force themselves up under the hem of Cameron's dress, which is still bunched around her waist. We cut to Cameron's beautiful bare breasts, as more rubber tubes slither around her supple mounds and climb out of the top of her dress—shiny trails of lube precede the rubber tubes, making it obvious that we're seeing reversed footage, but we don't linger on the shot for too long.

The same effect is repeated much more blatantly in a wide shot, as whole reels of fake giant noodles climb up Cameron's squirming body in awkward fits and starts, until at last only her face and her breasts are visible, with tubing looped over the top of her head. With a glassy smile, Cameron sinks out of frame.

We cut to a wide shot, showing the altar. There's no sign of Cameron or the original plate of noodles, but Cameron's green tube dress lays empty at the foot of the altar. We fade to black.

* * *

We fade in on an overhead shot, showing a glistening naked Cameron laying fetal in a sea of lubed rubber tubing. The lighting is warm and diffuse, distinguishing this as separate from the banquet table. Some of the fake giant noodles are moving, at the bottom of Cameron's body. The details are hidden by the curve of her thigh and ass, but the motion is suggestive.

We cut to an establishing shot of the banquet table, bathed in the luminous shadows of stained glass Saturn. Closer, a naked man, muscular and swarthy, with a bobbing erection, stands proudly while a petite blonde girl in a sexy maid's uniform ties a bib around his neck.

We pull in as the maid, Cecelia, asks in a snooty accent, "Would Master Estan like his oral pleasure before or after his holy communion?"

Darrek spreads his arms grandly. "During, of course!"

"Very good, sir," Cecelia replies, in an _entirely different_ snooty accent.

We cut to a long shot, with the stained glass behind us, and track forwards over the surface of the noodle pool towards the head of the table, where Darrek sits. His grin is manic, and he holds a Hitachi vibrator upright in his left hand along side a thick silicone dildo with a handle in his right hand.

Then, we pull back and move downwards, into the noodle pool. With an upwards wipe-transition, we emerge from the other side to see Cameron's bare glistening back, laying in the inverted sea of fake noodles and moaning softly—it is clearly the same pool, just shot from the opposite direction, under different lighting, with the camera upside-down.

We pan around Cameron in the inverted world, circling around her plump butt to bring her stuffed vagina into view. Her labia is stretched wide, pulsing in and out with the cluster of lubed tubing which has converged on her hole to fuck her with long, deep strokes. One of the fake noodles is not like the others, noticeable as a rigid rod to which the rubber tubes are affixed, but it's color and texture are matched to the tubing well enough that it doesn't stand out as the combined mass oozes in and out of Cameron's swollen cunt.

We cut back to Darrek, holding vibrator and dildo before him in each hand, and pan down to discover Cecelia on the floor in front of his chair, dutifully bobbing her head on his cock.

Back in the inverted noodle sea, the fucking speeds up, pumping that cluster of rubbery tubes into Cameron's pussy harder and harder. Cameron's juicy ass starts squirming and rocking, her moans a counterpoint to the loud wet _shlick_ of noodly penetration.

And just like that, Cameron cums. The rod flexes under the strain of fucking her while she writhes with pleasure, a happy accident that sells the noodliness of the whole bundle even better.

Returning to Darrek's cock, Cecelia sucks and slurps, pushing herself down until she chokes and holding it for a long moment before backing off with a gasp and focusing on Darrek's glans.

In the inverted noodle sea, Cameron is no longer being fucked. She uncurls, wriggling sensuously as she tangles herself in the tubing. Then, laying on her back, the fake noodles tighten and pull on her waist, dragging the middle of her body 'up' into the depths of the noodle sea.

We cut to the banquet, looking down over Darrek's shoulder. Cecelia's head is also visible, nursing on Darrek's cock. From the pool of rubber tubing in front of him, twin curves of supple flesh push up from underneath, displacing a pile of tubing as Cameron's ass and pussy emerge into view. With Cameron's thighs folded back along her torso, and her legs buried in the fake noodles, a grunt from Cecelia reveals that there actually must be a hole in the table for Cameron's upper body, and Cecelia is actually down there to brace Cameron so she doesn't fall to the floor. To our view, it just looks like Cameron's business end has been presented to Darrek by the sea of living noodles.

We cut to a close up, with Cameron's upthrust vulva in the foreground and Darrek's face behind the curve of her ass. We pan up a little as Darrek flips the dildo over in his hand and, cackling, plunges it into Cameron's prominent pussy with a lewd _splurt_ of displaced juices.

From a standard side view, we see Cecelia continue to suck Darrek's cock while he slams the dildo into Cameron's cunt. With his far hand, Darrek flips on the vibrator wand and presses it to Cameron's clit, which makes her hips buck upwards and her legs flex beneath their covering of rubber tubes. He holds the wand like a fork, and the dildo like a knife, sawing it into her until she cums again, her visible lower body shuddering and twitching.

"Thank you, your noodliness, for this bounty!" Darrek proclaims. He sets the vibrator and the dildo aside.

We pan in on the shiny succulent ass and swollen, sopping wet pussy of Cameron. Standing, Darrek leans over the edge of the noodle pool and buries his face in Cameron's hot, inviting cleft. Her squishy pussy lips hug Darrek's cheeks as he fucks her with his tongue.

We cut to a wide shot, looking down from overhead, as we track towards the head of the table. We briefly cut to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, overseeing this sexual feast.

We return to a close-up of Darrek with his mouth locked to Cameron's pussy. We slowly fade to black.

* * *

We fade in on the pool of fake noodles, looking straight down at the spread-eagle body of Cameron. Her hands and feet are buried under piles of rubber tubes, and her head is tilted up with a bundle of noodles over her eyes, but the rest of her body is covered only by glistening lube.

Darrek crawls into frame by Cameron's head, now nude. He kneels over Cameron's face and prods her lips with his cock.

We cut to a closeup, hovering over Cameron's softly jiggling breasts, as she sucks the tip of Darrek's cock into her mouth and nurses on it.

We return to the overhead angle, as the rubber tubes between Cameron's spread legs heave upwards, parting to reveal Martin's head and naked torso. He rises to a standing position, which brings his crotch even with Cameron's.

We cut to an over-the-hip shot of Martin as he rubs his cock up and down through Cameron's swollen, slippery slit. Martin slowly feeds his cock into Cameron's pussy, and we focus in on Cameron's slick, slowly distending flesh.

Cameron moans, and her knees rise, pulling a little more of her legs free from the rubber tubing as she spreads herself wider for Martin.

We cut to a standard side shot, and see Darrek sliding his cock further into Cameron's mouth while Martin places his hands on Cameron's hips and fucks her, firmly.

Cameron cums, it's hard to keep track of how many times. Her low moans are nearly constant and seemingly authentic, if occasionally interrupted by an occasional choking, "guh'k!" Darrek isn't deepthroating her, but he's getting close, and every time he goes a little too deep, Cameron's muscles flex as she tries and fails to lift her arms out of the fake noodles. Her hips buck, meeting Martin's hard thrusts with the shuddering urgency of orgasmic pleasure.

Darrek groans, pulling out and jerking his cock in his hand until he shoots his cum all over Cameron's wobbling breast flesh. Once Darrek is spent, we pan in on Martin's cock pounding into Cameron's pussy, getting up close to the meeting of flexing hips.

Martin slams in and stops, pausing for a moment, then he pulls out and we pan out with him.

We cut to a closeup of Cameron's pelvis, and watch a reversed-footage effect of the fake noodles slithering around her thighs and waist. We cut to her chest, and see the same effect as her tits bobble un-free of the tubes that wind around and accentuate each breast. We fade to black.

* * *

We fade in on Martin's face, then pan down to reveal Cameron's mouth wrapped around his cock. We cut to a wide shot, showing that Cameron is on her hands and knees, sucking off Martin while Darrek positions himself behind her. Cameron's noodly blindfold is still in place.

We cut to Cameron's ass, focusing in on her drooling pussy as Darrek slides two fingers into her and starts massaging her g-spot, then we cut back to her face, pulling in close as she takes a deep breath and forces herself down, taking Martin's cock into her throat. Shaking trembles wrack her body as her nose presses into Martin's mound, but she doesn't pull back. She fights, visibly struggling against the violent twitching of her body, to keep Martin's cock all the way down.

With a cry, Martin cums, thrusting forward against Cameron's face. We crossfade back to Darrek. As he lines himself up and slips his cock into Cameron's cunt, we pan out until we can see Cameron's blindfolded face. Martin is gone, and she moans freely while Darrek grabs her hips and fucks her fast and hard.

We cut to a reverse shot, showing a glimpse of Darrek's cock plunging into Cameron's lubricious pussy, but most of what we see is Darrek's hips slapping violently against Cameron's bouncing ass. The impacts are fast and sharp and very wet.

Darrek grabs the back of Cameron's noodly blind-fold and hauls her head back, reaching forward around her chest with his other hand to maul a big jiggly boob. Cameron arches, crying out in shameless bliss.

We cut to a low angle, slow-mo, focusing in on Cameron's brightly illuminated face, against the backdrop of the dark shadowy ceiling. We cut to a closeup of Cameron and Darrek's chests, as Darrek's fingers sink into Cameron's breast.

We cut to a wideshot as Cameron and Darrek both tilt forward until they're prone, then pull in over their legs as Darrek resumes his rapid, brutal fucking until he cries out and cums, filling a shuddering Cameron's pussy with white hot cum.

We cut to a side shot, showing their bodies pressed together. Darrek sits up, careful to keep his cock inside her, and we pan around him to bring the stained glass Saturn and the statue into view. He makes the prayer hands towards the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and we fade to black.


	8. CAMERON

_May 16th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Mission District_

It was hardly the most efficient use of my time, cleansing disease and drug addiction from the streets one corner at a time, but it was very cathartic. Even with Bree's help as a spotter, I'd only caught two more erophages in as many weeks, and neither of the female cum-collecting fey had given me a lead on their mysterious mistress.

Using a series of my hexagonal Planar Shields as stepping stones, I raced across an intersection, concealed in darkness above the dull glow of a solitary street lamp. I reached the other side, stepping smoothly onto a long, flat roof, and slowed to a brisk walk as I peered down into the street below.

A buxom woman in a tube-top, mini-skirt, and stiletto heels leaned against a conveniently placed utility pole on the adjacent street corner, toying with a furry scarf. Directly below me, two more girls in their late teens loitered by the stop sign, dressed in tiny shorts and brightly colored fishnet tops.

For the tenth time in as many city blocks, I dropped to the ground, landing quietly in a convenient shadow, and pushed my Cleansing Aura out to its maximum range. With all of my mana devoted to the task, I managed to cover a radius of almost two-hundred feet.

"D'joo hear that?" the pink fishnet girl with the cornrows asked.

"Hear what?" the aqua fishnet girl with the pixie cut asked.

"I dunno, I heard a noise," pink fishnet said.

"Whatevs." A passing car slowed to a crawl. "Oy, we got one, shut up and look slutty."

As the two fishnet girls posed provocatively, the car made a left and stopped next to the woman across the street. I brought Emerald Bliss to my hand and sent two orbs skimming low over the pavement, sneaking them under that car.

"Aw fuck, he's goin' for the saggy white bitch," pink fishnet muttered unhappily.

"Figures," aqua fishnet sighed.

As the so-called 'saggy white bitch' leaned into the car's window, I brushed an orb against her foot. She twitched as it touched her, but the moment of contact was enough to heal her. I saw her jerk and slip against the car window as her body abruptly recovered from years of stress damage and alcohol abuse.

A short while after that, the car door opened and she got in. I slipped and orb into the footwell, then up to touch the hand of the man in the driver seat. I sensed the lingering damage of _some_ kind of disease, long since wiped away by my Cleansing Aura. Inwardly sighing, I healed him too.

I dispelled those two orbs before they could be noticed, and watched as the car drove away. The two fishnet girls slumped out of their provocative poses. Pink fishnet rubbed her arms and shivered.

The street was empty of moving cars. It was as good a time as any to stop lurking. Striding out of the shadows, I emerged into the light of the street lamp in all my lewd magical girl glory.

"What the hell?" aqua fishnet blurted.

"Hah!" pink fishnet barked. "What the shit are you supposed to be?"

"A magical girl. Nice to meet you," I said dryly.

"Is that, like, a kink thing?" pink fishnet asked. "What's a fine-ass kinky white bitch like you doin' out here?"

"Y'know that's gonna get you in trouble," aqua fishnet added, waving at how my raiment left my entire pelvic region uncovered. "You're trying too hard, honey. Y'gotta ride the line if you wanna work the street. Cops give us enough trouble without handin' them a 'decent exposure charge on a silver platter."

"Seriously, doin' too much," pink fishnet agreed. Her eyes settled at the apex of my thighs. "You can't just show it off like that... even if what'chu showin' off is a damn fine-lookin' pussy."

I added a little smile to my expression. "Thanks?"

"The law doesn't care how pretty it is!" aqua fishnet insisted, pointing sharply at my naked crotch.

"That's fine. I'm not here to work," I told them blandly. I tossed an orb of Emerald Bliss to each of them. "Catch."

"Whoa! The fuck?"

"Warm!"

"Does that help?" I asked, casting a Perfect Incarnation on each of them through my orbs.

Both of them relaxed and stopped shivering as their bodies were revitalized. Aqua fishnet girl recovered from a nicotine addiction, and both of them had miscellaneous wear and tear for my spell to repair.

"Yeah, fancy heat balls, huh?" pink fishnet said, frowning in confusion. "But..."

"They won't last," I interrupted.

"Thanks anyway, I guess," pink fishnet said, shaking her head, staring at the softly glowing orb in her hands. "But..."

"Seriously though, you gotta get outta here," aqua fishnet told me, thankfully distracting pink fishnet from the orb before she hurt herself. "We don't need the kinda attention that kinky try-hard getup of yours'll bring down on us. Specially not if the boss hears about it."

"Relax, I'll go. One question first? When the cops do make trouble for you, how does that usually go?" I asked, the same question I'd asked many times over the last week.

"Eh? Depends on the cop," aqua answered. "If you're lucky, they'll take a bribe and let you off with a warning. If you're not so lucky, they'll _insist_ on the bribe then cuff you anyway."

"Yeah 'cause it ain't rape if a cop does it," pink muttered, sour and sarcastic. "Least that's better than getting one'a them self-righteous fuckers who'll just straight up arrest you no matter what then act like they did you a favor."

I nodded, offering a small smile of agreement. "Has it been bad, here, for you?" I asked.

Aqua fishnet girl studied me, eyes narrowing. "Why do you want to know?"

"Call it a vested interest in your job satisfaction," I said with a wry shrug.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" aqua wondered.

"Actually, there's been a new guy," pink told me, ignoring aqua's hesitation. "He's been keepin' the heat off lately, but he comes 'round on the regular expectin' free pussy. Won't take cash at all."

"Won't take no for an answer neither," aqua added, grimacing, "and I hear sometimes girls come back lookin' like they were gang-raped, having trouble remembering."

I straightened up, seizing on that last detail. That was new. "What kind of trouble remembering? Like, blackouts, missing time?"

"I dunno, I've only had him once and, like, he didn't wanna wear a condom, but a'sides that it was totally routine," aqua fishnet told me. She looked at pink fishnet.

"I dunno either, but I hear things," pink said. "Nobody I know was talking about blackouts n'shit, pretty sure."

In which case, that kind of memory confusion sounded an awful lot like the Veil at work. Which meant there was something about this new vice cop, or what he was doing, that the Veil cared to hide from his victims.

"Okay. When and where does this guy usually show up?" I asked.

* * *

Tucked into a concealing nook where two buildings met without lining up right, I watched as a covert-style police SUV turned off the street and parked under a narrow overhang.

Behind me, a homeless man sat on the concrete lip at the base of the recessed wall, staring up at my naked ass with bleary eyes set in a sallow, lined face. As I glanced back, I let my lips quirk into a small, promising smile and wiggled my rear at him. It was too dark to give him much of a show, but I hoped his night-vision was good enough to let his imagination fill in the details.

He blinked at me, glancing down at the shape in his hand, incredulous. I held in a giggle. My Cleansing Aura did enforce soberness. Thankfully, it had also taken the putrid edge off of the man's unwashed smell.

Checking that my target was still in his vehicle, I ducked down and turned. The homeless man inhaled sharply at my sudden proximity, looking at me with abject confusion and more than a little longing. He had more of a beard than I ever wanted to kiss, but I steeled myself and leaned in anyway.

I cast Perfect Incarnation through my lips, feeling it as years of exposure and malnourishment melted off of him. He made a noise of surprise and started kissing me back as his body surged with vitality and renewed youth. His tongue invaded my mouth, tasting clean and healthy, as he sat up and grabbed my shoulders to pull me closer.

I heard a car door open across the street.

Gently, I pried the rejuvenated homeless man off of me and pushed him back into his seat. He fought me, gasping harshly at the loss of my lips, but it was a transient madness and he stopped struggling as soon as he had a moment to collect himself. I gave him an apologetic smile, and ducked out onto the sidewalk.

I stayed low, moving behind a parked sedan as my target, the possibly-magical vice cop, turned around and walked away from his SUV. I expected smugness and swaggering, but that wasn't what I saw. He was big, muscular and bald, dressed in jeans and jacket with a shiny badge on his hip, but his face was pained, with an edge of desperation to his movements as he hurried down to the intersection.

I dashed across the street and dove into the narrow space between the SUV's right-hand side and the alley wall, crouching by the rear tire where I could peek out under the bumper without being seen.

It didn't take long for the burly cop to come back, gripping the arm of a pouting blonde girl in a faux-ripped mini-dress. He brought her over to the SUV and opened the rear door. This was one of those models where the rear doors opened backwards, providing cover from the street.

"Get in," the cop ordered. "Take off your dress."

"Right here, huh?" the faux blonde asked, only to yelp, "I'm going! You got a condom?"

"No condoms," he said sharply, followed by the clink of an unbuckling belt.

"What?" she protested. "C'mon, man, I've got one if you don't."

"I said no," the cop repeated, "I can't wear a condom. It doesn't work if I wear a condom."

I frowned as the cop climbed into the backseat with the girl. I had my Cleansing Aura pulled in at the moment, but this was the kind of thing I'd invented the spell for in the first place, even if the Veil made it impossible to inform mundanes that they didn't need protection with me around.

" _What_ doesn't? Hey! Yommph!" The SUV rocked slightly.

That's what I wanted to know.

I slid up the tire and peeked in the window. The burly cop was naked to the waist, with an improbably large penis sticking out of his unbuttoned fly. He crouched over the naked blonde girl, covering her mouth with his while his hand circled roughly between her legs. She shoved ineffectually against his chest for a moment, before giving up with a disgruntled moan and spreading herself for him.

There was something wrong with this guy's cock. I couldn't see more than a phallic silhouette through the tinted glass, but there was something off about it. As I strained my eyes to resolve a clearer image, he lowered himself, blocking my view.

Sighing, I pushed my Cleansing Aura out to cover the SUV.

The cop bolted upright, leaping away from the naked blonde girl with a startled yelp. I flinched at his sudden move. He looked up. He saw me, looking in. Our eyes locked through the window.

"Shit," I whispered, as his dark eyes widened in stark terror.

He went for his gun. I leaped back and punched a charged orb into the window. At point-blank range, the blast had only enough force to crater the shatter-proof glass and rock the car.

The girl screamed.

Half-naked with his pants open, the cop leaped out and slammed the door shut in one move. He dropped to the concrete and opened fire on my legs. The impacts against my armored boots knocked my legs out from under me, jarring impacts that still hurt less than the loudness of the gunshots.

I latched onto the buckled window frame and vaulted onto the roof of the SUV, rolling once to cross it before I dropped off the other side. Right into the business end of his gun.

His shot ripped through my throat and deflected off my spine, ripping out of my neck at an angle in a burst of blood. My whole body went numb in an instant, and I crashed to the ground like a sack of meat.

For a second, I was too stunned to even heal myself, but Perfect Incarnation had nearly become a reflex, and I managed to cast it before I passed out from the unintended application of skull to concrete.

The half-naked cop scrambled up and wrenched the driver-side door open, throwing himself into the seat. My head cleared. The engine roared to life, revved, and tires squealed. The gush of blood from my neck stopped, and feeling rushed back into my limbs.

I pushed myself up, lifting my head. Visible through the SUV's windshield, a shadowed face contorted in dismay as clenched hands twisted the steering wheel. Two sinuous phallic forms writhed up in front of his bare chest.

The covert-style police vehicle skidded into its lane, driver door still wide open, and lurched forward. I threw one arm forward and launched an uncharged orb. The orb zipped across the distance and shot into the footwell of the SUV just as the door swung shut.

Letting out a relieved gasp, I coughed up a splatter of blood as I cleared my airway. As I staggered to my feet, I heard the crunching shriek of colliding metal in the distance, and emerged from the alley in time to see a crumpled hatchback spin to a stop as the SUV raced off.

I wiped the blood off my lips and leaped into the air, using shields as footholds to reach the rooftop above me. I could feel exactly where my orb was, riding passively with that car, and as long as I didn't let it dispel I could follow it at any distance.

"Okay, what do I know?" I asked myself as I ran.

First, he insisted on unprotected sex. He seemed to believe he needed it for something. His motive for that part was clearly fear. He was afraid.

He freaked out when he saw me. Either he had some very specific phobias, or he recognized me as a magical girl. He was _more_ afraid of meeting a magical girl than of whatever happens if he doesn't have unprotected sex.

I rolled as I dropped to the next roof, vaulted over a dividing wall, and airstepped across an intersection, cutting straight across the city as I followed my orb.

That alone wasn't damning. Thaumics who were caught alone outside the Crossroads were fair game, as far as the Puuchu were concerned, and they had by far the largest fraction of magical girls.

Finally, I was pretty sure I'd seen two disproportionately long dicks sticking up behind the steering wheel when he peeled out, writhing like angry snakes.

I sailed through the air and slammed down on a spine of shingles, going to one knee to keep from slipping off, as I breathed two words of delighted realization, "Tentacle monster!"

My orb stopped moving.

Dispensing with subtlety, I launched myself off that roof and cast a large Planar Shield under my feet, followed by another, and another, forming a straight path through the air. I leaned into a sprint and ran as fast as I could, extending the path in front of me shield by shield.

* * *

I was still a block away when I saw the explosion. There was no blast, just a flare of brightness like sunlight had broken out in that one small area for half a second, followed by a low rumble.

I skidded off the end of my shield path and dropped to run on the last rooftop, sliding to a stop at the opposite edge. Below, tree-lined sidewalks ensconced a large industrial yard, filled with stacks of piping, traffic cones, and chainlink fence rolls. A warehouse covered one end and the other had a row of heavy pickup trucks parked under the trees.

A covert-style police SUV rested on its side, slightly mangled. A small figure in an opulent white dress ran towards it, brandishing a crystal-bladed polearm.

With a wrench of protesting metal, the SUV's doors burst open as a writhing mass of red flesh exploded up out of the vehicle. It flowed up over the roof of the SUV, carrying a pale naked girl in its tentacles as it put the wreck between it and the unidentified magical girl. Once on the ground, it ran on human legs. The cop, transformed. It seemed like he still had a humanoid shape under all the tentacles, but he was too far away for me to make out details.

" _Emerald Bliss!_ " I hissed, resummoning my weapon. Four orbs orbited my right hand.

I leaped off the roof and onto a large angled shield, surfing down a series of sloped shields until I reached the ground inside the industrial yard.

The other magical girl leaped up onto the crashed SUV, and I finally got a good look at her. Petite, lightly freckled, with curly brown hair to her shoulders. She glowed with an uncanny light, like an invisible sun shone on her alone. Her raiment was like clear glass spun into a modest prom dress, with metallic golden sunbursts tied into the seams.

She extended an arm and liquid sunlight gathered around her hand. A beam lanced out towards the fleeing tentacle monster, searing into the ground and forcing him to veer right, away from the warehouse, even as it lit him up in a brilliant radiance.

The other magical girl shrieked in surprise, for some reason.

The transformed phallithrope ground to a halt and spun around, flipping his hostage upside down to keep her between him and the magical girl.

Said hostage let out a muffled squeal of protest, but she could hardly talk with an engorged tentacle penis stuffed into her mouth, or struggle much with most of her body wrapped up in prehensile cock. Two more glistening red tentacles continued to steadily thrust their phallic heads into the moaning blonde's pussy and ass even while the humanoid form of the man ducked behind her with a manly yelp.

A throb of heat, between my legs. A thrill of desire. I ignored it.

His muscles had bulked up, and the skin of his entire body had flushed deep red such that his original skin color wasn't discernible. Every body feature on his torso had a lengthy tentacle penis growing from it instead. He had one in the obvious place, but his scrotum was gone, replaced by two more matching appendages. His navel and his nipples were gone, replaced by three more matching tentacle dicks. From his back, a tentacle penis extended from each of his vertebrae. And on his face, his eyes were gone, twin tentacles growing out of where the sockets used to be.

"L-Let her go!" the other magical girl cried in a voice hot with horror, squinting like she was trying to look at the tentacle rape without looking at the tentacle rape. "Let her go right now! You, you gross sex pervert!"

"I _can't_ let go, you stupid cunt!" the phallithrope snarled with an edge of desperate helplessness. "Get lost unless you want to be next!"

The luminous magical girl's answering shriek was far more outraged this time. I'd read about phallithropes, though. They were a class of werebeast. Spirit-cursed humans, the result of a failed possession, with an alternate form that took them over if they didn't keep their curse sated. As she gathered liquid sunlight between her hands, I tensed in alarm.

A searing beam of brightness scorched a line straight towards the phallithrope and his cock-stuffed human shield. I moved. Bolting out from between the trucks, I threw a huge Planar Shield up between the beam attack and its target as I skidded into place behind it, touching it to make absolutely sure it could draw on _all_ of my mana.

The beam lit up my shield with a loud ringing thrum... and the shield held, easily. Blinking, I slowly straightened up as the beam attack wasted itself on the ten-foot wide glimmering hexagon.

In the silence that followed, broken only by a soft muffled moan from behind me, I glanced back to see the phallithrope gaping incredulously at me through his tentacles. The magical girl on top of the toppled SUV had a similar baffled expression on her face.

"Ehh?! Who're you? Why're you protecting that crazy-driving pervert monster?!" the magical girl demanded shrilly.

"I'm the Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve!" I declared. "And the word is phallithropy. He was driving crazy because I was chasing him. Who're you?"

"Me? I'm the Prismatic Warrior Luminous Charm, and I need you to get out of the way! Get out of the way right now so I can make it stop! It's, it's violating that woman!"

I gave Luminous Charm a flat look through the rippling shimmer of my shield. "She's fine." Not strictly true, if the blonde prostitute started paying enough attention to have a Veil-induced seizure, but for the moment she wasn't exactly acting distressed. "Listen! Just stand down and let me handle this. Tentacle monsters are my juris-DICK!"

Something hot, hard, and slippery speared into my ass, ramming its way through my sphincter and penetrating deep into my body in the same moment. I let out a shivery, half-choked moan and staggered as my body accepted the unexpected intruder. I caught myself against my shield and healed myself on reflex, but I wasn't hurt to begin with, just startled.

I looked behind me, tracing the wriggling red appendage back to the phallithrope's groin. It was his primary, attached to him in the correct place for a normal penis. The phallithrope himself had his eyeless face turned towards me, looking like he had _all_ the regrets and thought he was about to die, even as a second tentacle slithered around my left thigh to hold me steady and his primary tentacle penis began to tug and push, out and in.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to reassure him _or_ dwell on the flush of shivery heat that set my legs trembling as his eager phallic appendage invaded my anal passage.

"Ah!" Luminous Charm yelped. "No! I'll save you!"

Luminous Charm leaped from the SUV, brandishing her polearm as she tried to juke around my shield. Desperately wrenching my attention away from the thick thrusting tentacle throbbing in my ass, I dispelled my shield and punched, firing an orb. Eyes wide, the other magical girl threw up her arms, manifesting a semi-spherical shell of liquid sunlight just in time to catch the emerald streak that detonated against her luminous defense.

Gritting my teeth, I moved to fire a second orb, only for Luminous Charm to go skidding backwards with a pained yelp. Her shield moved with her, staying fixed to her position instead of fixed to the earth. I blinked. I hadn't expected my attack to be that effective, or for her shield to work that way. Luminous Charm certainly looked impressive, but if one orb blast phased her that much, this was maybe a fight I could win after all.

I kicked out with my right leg, throwing myself into a spinning flip that forcibly unwound the tentacle from my left leg. Bringing both legs together, I put an angled shield under my feet and lunged out to meet my opponent.

The tentacle in my ass snapped taut and ripped out of my rectum, forcing a gasp from my lungs as a hot surge of sensation made me flub the landing. I crashed in the dirt, but I forced my body into a roll and came up on my feet.

Light, blinding. I threw up a shield.

Luminous Charm's beam attack sizzled against the thrumming hexagon, spots in my eyes and a throbbing sting on one side of my face and chest as I sprang up, using a shield to airstep over a slash of her crystal polearm.

I twisted to get my feet under me again, and kicked down at Luminous Charm's extended weapon. She yanked it back. I ducked low as I hit the ground and fired an orb up into her gut. The reduced power of the blast at close range still managed to blow her off her feet.

She rolled, coming up on one knee with a pained wheeze, and slashed out with the polearm in a wide swing. I snapped a shield into place to block, deflecting the crystal blade with a sparking impact, but Luminous Charm whirled with the rebounded force, swinging her weapon in a full circle to strike me from the other direction.

I skipped backwards, out of her polearm's range, and brought my hands together. Two orbs per fist. I _punched_. My first orb blast slammed into a luminous semi-spherical shield. The second rocked Luminous Charm several steps back. The third tore her shield apart. The fourth orb arced to follow as she threw herself to the side with an _eep_ , grazing by and blowing a divot in the ground behind her.

Luminous Charm cartwheeled upright, and stomped her foot. A line of prismatic light erupted from the dirt, inscribing a circle around her. The circle pivoted upwards, becoming a floating aurora ring in front of her.

" _Emerald..._ "

Straight lines sprouted from the sides of the ring, connecting to a rapidly appearing array of rings, radiating out from the first ring. Luminous Charm thrust one hand towards the center ring, lighting it up with a point of liquid sunlight.

All of the other rings filled with a copy of her attack spell. I found myself staring down a fully deployed Barrage combat module.

" _...Bliss!_ "

My weapon reappeared, orbiting my hand, but Luminous Charm's beamspam rained down on me before I could do anything but will a Planar Shield into place.

My shield _rang_ under the searing volleys of liquid sunlight, but once again it held. It was so bright I had to shut my eyes, but it held. I even had mana to spare.

Keeping my eyes closed, I fixed Luminous Charm's location in my mind, judging the distance in my imagination. I punched out to the side, and sent a blazing emerald orb arcing around the edge of my shield.

I felt the orb strike and detonate. With a shriek of pain, the beamspam stopped. The air cleared, and Luminous Charm groaned on the ground.

Releasing a sharp breath, I dispelled my shield and paused to glance down at myself, healing my burns. One side of both breasts and one shoulder had a shiny red texture, but Perfect Incarnation rapidly restored it all to healthy skin.

Luminous Charm picked herself up with a whine, using the haft of her weapon as a crutch, and demanded, "Why?!" Her tone turned plaintive. "I was trying to help!"

"If you want to help, revert your raiment and help me calm him down," I said, scathing.

She flinched as I sent another orb over to touch her, squeaking in alarm, but the soothing balm of Perfect Incarnation stopped her from protesting.

Luminous Charm's jaw dropped. "Eh?! You healed me? But what do you mean calm him down?! He tried to rape you too!"

Rolling my eyes, I stalked forward and let her own passive glow light up my body. "And I was going to let him. He can't control himself in that form."

"That's no excuse! Oh, ew ew ew!" Luminous Charm cried as she got a good look at my raiment for the first time. "It touched you there! On your naked parts! Your raiment is...!"

I stopped in front of her, glaring. "Leave."

"Leave?" Luminous Charm repeated faintly, staring wide-eyed at my cord-supported breasts and exposed nipples.

I softened a little. "Leave. You can't help with this. I can."

"You mean..." Luminous Charm blanched. "But, we're supposed to _fight_ the thaumic deviants! They're dangerous monsters! Puchuu said so!"

He _wasn't_ a thaumic deviant. He was spirit-cursed. But I doubted she cared about that distinction. "This one is only dangerous if you deny him sex," I argued.

"Exactly!" Luminous Charm exclaimed, brightening both figuratively and literally, like she thought I'd just agreed with her. "He's been _revealed_ for the monster he is, but if we work together we can beat him!"

My face went blank. Inwardly, I seethed, but my voice came out icy calm. "I'd rather beat _you_ , so I can hold you down for that tentacle monster while he fucks you in every hole you've got."

Luminous Charm recoiled. "Wh-what?"

"I won't," I said coldly, "because in theory I care about consent, but if you really believe in any kind of moral imperative to withhold sex, then you are more my enemy than he is."

The other magical girl's alarmed gaze cut over to where the phallithrope was busy huddling behind and fucking the blonde prostitute with his tentacles, and jerked away just as quickly. She shifted her crystal polearm into a two-handed grip, holding it in front of her like a ward.

"What are you saying?" Luminous Charm asked shrilly. "You're siding with the deviant?!"

"Maybe," I said, "but that's my call to make. Sexual threats are my jurisdiction, not yours."

"Puu! You don't have a jurisdiction, lost soul!" A white plushy penguin stepped out onto Luminous Charm's shoulder, eyes glowing gold behind a pair of tiny wire-rim glasses.

"She doesn't?" Luminous Charm asked the Puuchu, hopeful.

"Not at all!" the penguin continued in its high, grating voice. "She's a lost soul. She doesn't have any directives, chuu! She is unclaimed."

"I don't need anyone telling me to do this, to know it's what I'm here to do," I said, giving the Puuchu a dirty look.

Luminous Charm tightened her grip on her weapon. "Can I defeat her, Puuchu?"

"Unlikely, but anything is possible, chuu!" the little penguin replied, and she slumped. "You don't need to, though! She was correct about one thing. She is much better suited to handle a phallithrope than you are, Luminous Charm!"

"But she doesn't want to handle it!" Luminous Charm protested. "She wants to, to seduce it and protect it!"

"Unfortunate, chuu!" the Puuchu agreed. "But more unfortunate if the camazotz three blocks from here starts hunting in that children's shelter!"

Blanching, Luminous Charm snatched the Puuchu off her shoulder. "I thought you said I had time!"

"Puu! Time you chose to spend hunting this phallithrope and challenging this lost soul!" it agreed.

Luminous Charm tossed the Puuchu over her shoulder with a cry of dismay. "Then hurry up! Let's go!"

I blinked, bemused, as Luminous Charm dashed away in a frantic sprint. "Okay, that... works for me."

"This isn't over, Rousing Salve!" she shouted back at me as she left the industrial yard.

"Hooray, my first nemesis," I deadpanned.

With a sigh, I turned on my heel and marched towards the phallithrope and his captive lover. He'd crept over into the shadow of the warehouse while I was distracted, but it wasn't dark enough to hide the movement of his tentacles.

He crouched, with the blonde prostitute wrapped up on his back, moaning incoherently as she dazedly sucked on the tentacle fucking her mouth. As I neared, every tentacle that wasn't either fucking her or supporting her weight split off and snaked towards me, writhing in the air between me and him.

I stopped just out of his reach. "If I come closer, are you going to attack me?"

"I can't control it," he groaned, panting. "It's like getting hard. My tentacles, my body, they just _move_."

"Shoving your prehensile dicks into my holes and fucking me doesn't count as an _attack_ ," I informed him in reasonable tones while a throb of excitement pulsed through my pussy. "Are you going to do anything that does?"

For a long moment, he didn't respond. His humanoid core trembled. "What... I don't..."

I waited. He shivered. His captive lover twitched and moaned as his tentacles stroked in and out of her messy holes with a new urgency.

Suddenly, he lurched towards me, striking out with his tentacles. I put a shield behind my back for just long enough to shove off and throw myself forward. A dozen tentacles closed on empty air behind me as I slid along their lengths to reach his humanoid body.

I caught him mid-lunge and pulled him into an embrace, bringing us both to a stop. He gasped in surprise, even as his tentacles closed in around me.

I looked up into his eyeless red face and asked, "Just tell me. What does it take to change you back?"

"Back?" he groaned as his tentacles rubbed along my body. "I have to cum. All of my tentacles. In a woman."

"Okay," I said breathlessly. "You can fuck me as hard as you need to."

The tentacles growing from his eye sockets coiled around my neck in tandem, hauling me out to arm's length from him, before diving down and splitting to either side of my breasts. Those two tentacles curled up around each breast, forming an upside-down heart shape as they squeezed my boobs together and dove into the resulting cleavage from below.

At the same time, several tentacles looped around my thighs and lifted my feet off the ground, forcing my legs up and apart into a seated pose, while the tentacles from his chest supported my waist. The three tentacles growing from his groin raced up from beneath me, jamming into each other as they all reached my crotch at once.

I moaned and rocked my eager hips, grinding my pussy against the writhing cluster of hard, slippery dicks. The moan became a needy whine as all three tentacles got in each other's way, sliding over and stroking my vulva without any of them making it inside me.

The phallithrope's human hands grabbed my butt and dug in, spreading my cheeks, as he made a strangled noise. "At once! All at once! You. Godsdamnit!"

The head of one of his pectoral tentacles slithered up from under my arm and shoved itself into my mouth, cutting off my alarmed, "Wait, what?!"

On reflex, I clamped down with my lips and tongue, sucking and working the glans in the hope that the tentacle wouldn't go for my throat, seeking a tighter orifice.

With a sinking feeling, I tried to count his tentacles. Six, eight, from the front of his body. More than ten, maybe more than twenty from his back. Four, maybe five of them were finding stimulation with or within the blonde prostitute, who hung just out of arm's reach, moaning rapturously. Both of the tentacles in her lower holes trembled erratically. With a slurping wet sound, they pulled out of her, and another two replaced them an instant later.

A fourth tentacle joined the primary three in their fight for _my_ lowers holes, but I forced myself to ignore the needy hollowness of my own flesh and keep my eyes on those two spent tentacles. The two spent tentacles recovered fast. Fast enough that I was probably in trouble.

A rapid pulsation filled my mouth with too-warm and oddly flavorless spurts of cum, which I gulped down without hesitation. If I understood right, the phallithrope curse required each ejaculation to leave cum in my body, or it wouldn't count. That tentacle pulled out, and two more dove at my lips.

I opened wide, struggling to stretch my mouth around both tentacles, but my pride as a slut wouldn't let me do any less. Maybe I couldn't satisfy twenty-plus cocks at once, but we'd definitely be here all night if he had to fuck me in each hole one tentacle at a time.

Glancing down, I took a deep breath through my nose and waited. Right as his three groin tentacles lined up, heads even with each other and pointed inwards, I canted my hips and unclenched as much as I could.

My pussy split open on the triple-tentacle girth as my entrance stretched to the point of pain, but my outer gates slipped down over the heads of all three tentacle cocks. They plunged in eagerly, forcing my inner flesh taut and full, and I threw my head back to cry out in triumphant erotic delight.

That was a mistake.

As I healed myself, actually feeling the force of Perfect Incarnation compress my vaginal canal around the massive girth inside me as it repaired the micro-tears, my mouth hung open. Bereft of their oral service, the two tentacles there dove deeper in search of stimulation.

They rammed into the back of my throat and kept going. I gagged, hard, heaving forward as my stomach tried to climb up my esophagus. It met the tentacles half way, it felt like, and punched me in the solar plexus from the inside. Over and over again.

"Shit! Shit! Oh shit but fuck that's good!"

There was no getting used to it. My gag reflex couldn't adapt with Perfect Incarnation constantly restoring it, and I needed Perfect Incarnation because I couldn't breathe. It was a problem I'd discovered with the boys while we were shooting _The Noodle Incident_. The one glaring unforeseen drawback of my otherwise optimal healing spell.

I had a tentacle fucking my ass again, squeezing in to what little space was left behind my stuffed pussy. I wasn't even aware of when that had happened. I may have had an orgasm, at some point, too. For a little while the lurches of agony sort of echoed lower down and got a lot more pleasant, but I was gagging too hard to really pay attention.

Cum splashed across my bulging neck, and a different set of tentacles replaced the pair at my breasts. I climaxed again, convulsing hard as tentacles fucked me from all ends, pounding ecstatic pleasure into my nerves and twisting the sharp edges off the rebellion in my throat.

That was new, and unexpectedly marvelous. Still, it was a huge relief when the two tentacles finally ejaculated into my stomach and pulled out. I let out an explosive gasp, hacking and coughing as I jiggled from the pounding I was still getting in my pussy and ass.

I blinked tears out of my eyes, and moaned like a wanton whore, flush with pride that I hadn't panicked.

I forced my eyes to focus on the blonde prostitute, a note of confusion creeping in. She had a tentacle penis in her mouth, but it wasn't gagging her. She did seem a little ragged, though. I reached for her, but my arms were tangled in tentacles. I only remembered the orbs orbiting my hand a moment later. I had one touch her, and I healed her.

With all of her vitality restored, the blonde prostitute screamed, cumming instantly from all that stimulation as her body reset to pristine condition. In the middle of her orgasm, she started choking.

With a noise of frustration, I cut off the healing and snapped my orb back to my hand. She kept cumming, but the gagging began to taper off before _my_ body forced my attention back to the trio of tentacle cocks fucking my pussy as I came again and my mind whited out from the explosive pleasure.

As I came back to myself, a warm flood spurted into my guts, and the anal tentacle slipped out. I trembled as a second set of three snaked under me and fought over my ass. I already had so much tentacle dick in me, but a bundle of three cocks together wasn't much bigger than a fist, and I knew it was possible to take two fists at once, even if I'd never done it.

One tentacle slipped past the other two and wormed its way into my rear passage, adding pressure to my stretched, straining vagina. With a whimper of desire, I relaxed my muscles as much as I could, trying to let the other two in, but it wasn't enough. Those tentacles moved away and had to settle for rubbing along the outside of my butt.

Another tentacle penis appeared to prod my lips, and I opened my mouth to suckle its hot throbbing head. It wasn't enough. Even if I managed to take three tentacles in every hole at once, I'd need three of _me_ just to account for all the tentacles that weren't otherwise occupied. I needed more holes.

A large, previously inert facet of my soul primed itself and started consuming mana. I mentally froze. Place and pose, relative to any point on my body or my orbs. _Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me! Where was this hiding?!_

I sent one orb out of the phallithrope's reach and—

—staggered at the sudden discontinuity.

I stood, holding a frictionless glass orb in my hand, throbbing with arousal and swaying with the abrupt absence of so many sensations. No tentacles touched me, and my body was upright, facing a different direction. I wore something that looked exactly like my raiment, but it wasn't my raiment. My magic was gone, and in its place was only a simple thread of connection, pointing behind me.

Spinning around, I beheld the phallithrope and his two captive lovers. One, a thin nude blonde slung above his back. The other, a lusciously fit and curvy magical girl in a green corset, emerald-patterned latex sleeves, and heavy black thigh-high boots, suspended in front of him with three dripping tentacles crammed into her distended vagina and one more plunging deep into her anal passage.

"Holy fuck." That was the real Cameron, and I was a copy. This was my combat module. A rare one. "It's a Duplicate!" I let a moment pass. "I seem to be sentient!"

The real Cameron moaned something, but I couldn't tell if she was responding to me or just cumming again. It was too dark to really see clearly, but I still had to stop and stare. The spectacle in front of me was so fucking hot. I wished I could think of a way to get my tablet into my hands so I could record it, but it was in the real Cameron's Pocket.

The thread of connection suddenly yanked, ripping me out of myself—

—and I slammed back into myself, cumming and thrashing in the clutches of several dozen tentacle dicks.

Oh good, I didn't die—I dearly hoped I hadn't just erased a sentient copy of myself when I dispelled the duplicate, but—I _was_ the copy and I'd just snapped back to—me. Okay, that was neat. A seamless merger. I could handle that.

Laughing around the phallic appendage in my mouth, I poured my remaining mana into my Duplicate module, and felt it as a copy appeared at my right hand, then one at my left, then two more under my feet. All four leaped away, making room as tentacles snared them. I did it again and managed to bring the total number of copies up to eight before I ran out of mana.

"What the fuck?" the phallithrope gasped. "Oh, oh my fucking fuck. Okay."

I let go of Perfect Incarnation, wincing at the ensuing twinge of protest in my triple-stuffed vaginal canal, but that passed. With all of my mana devoted to Duplicate, I managed four more copies.

"Oh fuck, so much!" the phallithrope moaned.

The phallithrope fell to his knees, setting me down on my back to free up tentacles for the others. The tentacle in my ass extracted itself, and one of the trio in my pussy pulled out and moved down to replace it.

With more room to move, the remaining tentacles sped up, fucking me fast and furiously. A dozen echoes of my own voice moaned and cried out, while my own pleasure rapidly built to another peak, sending my entire pelvic region into clenching spasms of blinding joy that broke across my entire body.

Soon after, the phallithrope himself gasped raggedly and said, "Oh gods, so good! I'm gonna cum! I'm gonna cum for real! I'm finally gonna cum! Oh fuck!"

With a bellow of release, every one of his tentacle dicks throbbed and swelled, shuddering as they pumped all of us full of hot gooey cum. The liquid heat poured into me, sloshing around the tentacles that produced it.

Panting, I lifted myself up on my elbows to watch as each tentacle went completely still, then shrank away, sucking back into the phallithrope's body. His skin lost its unhealthy red flushed look, reverting to his normal tones. He swayed and fell, but a few of my copies caught him and cradled his head. Another me caught the blonde prostitute.

"We did it," I and several of my copies all chorused, grinning at each other.

"He's still hard," another me noted.

The restored man's entirely human penis jutted up from his body, bobbing with a steady beat. I bunched up and sprang to my feet, going to stand over him with his torso squeezed gently between my boots. He blinked up at me with bleary eyes and groaned.

"Better safe than sorry?" I asked, getting synchronized nods from my copies.

Several of my unoccupied copies abruptly vanished—tugged on the connection to snap myself back since I was probably superfluous, not being one of the three copies acting as a pillow—and I had to shake off the disorientation before I lowered myself in a squat and took the nude man's cock into my pussy.

His body tensed up under me as he let out a pleased gasp. "What are you...?"

"Finishing the job, obviously," I said lightly.

"...thank you." He met my eyes, and his face was solemn. "You could've just killed me, but you... didn't."

"Understatement," one of my copies snarked under her breath, voicing my amused thought.

I wiggled my hips, stirring his cock around inside me. "You're welcome. How long is this going to last you?"

"If you keep that up," he groaned, "about fifty hours."

"What if I didn't?" I asked neutrally.

The man stiffened, a flicker of fear crossing his face. His eyes cut over to the blonde prostitute, dozing in my copy's arms. "Five... hours. Five hours or thereabouts."

I tapped his chin with a finger to get him to look at me again, while I flexed my vaginal muscles to give his cock a squeeze. "Okay, good. Then we have time to talk."

He dropped his head back onto my copy's lap with groan of resignation. "What do you want?"

I shrugged. "How about a name?"

"...it's Nick."

"Okay, Nick," I said. "You can call me Cameron. A pleasure to meet you."

"...uh huh."

I gave him an ironic smile, and another cock-stirring hip-wiggle. "How long have you been extorting street prostitutes to manage your condition, Nick?"

"I had to," he grunted defensively. "I couldn't find a date who'd let me go bareback soon enough to matter. Why'd, you think I wanna stick my dick in these dirty hoes? I don't exactly have a lotta options, your sparkliness."

"Nick," I said sharply. "I'm only going to say this once, and you're going to listen or we're going to have a problem. Those girls are providing you with an essential service. You need them."

"...and?"

I leaned down, squishing my breasts on my knees as I held his gaze. "And therefore, from now on, _you will pay your ho_. Am I clear?"

"Are you high? You think I make enough on the beat to buy a girl on the regular? I'd be broke in a month!"

I straightened up, resting most of my weight on our joined groins. "Then message me. I'll give you my e-mail address. As you may have noticed, I can be in two places at once."

Nick blinked at me in clear surprise. "You'll just... do me? For free?"

"Believe it or not, some girls are into tentacles," I said wryly.

He stared at me.

"...can you change before the need forces you?"

"I never tried," he admitted.

I shrugged. "Oh well."

His cock twitched inside me.

"In all seriousness, I do have one condition," I told him.

"...what?"

"Don't hassle prostitutes, or their clients, ever again," I said. "You just walk by and pretend it's all legal. If I hear about you waving your badge around, making life harder for those _dirty hoes_ ," I made air-quotes, "the deal's off."

"I can't agree to that!" Nick exclaimed. "I'd _lose_ my badge! We've got annual arrest quotas, and they're _not_ optional."

I shook my head and sighed. "Try."

"I mean, yeah, sure, of course I'll try," he replied. "I'll do what I can. Fair?"

I reminded myself that I couldn't solve a systemic problem by browbeating one cop. "Fair."

Nick breathed out a sigh of relief, and I shifted my weight in response. I lifted my hips up, gliding my vaginal walls to the tip of his dick, then dropped back down and bounced. I kept bouncing, milking his dick with my pussy, until he erupted within me one last time.

* * *

 _May 17th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I airstepped up to the fourth-story window and carefully let myself into the dark and quiet apartment. Reverting my raiment, I crept nude into Martin's room. I yawned, swaying as I padded over to the bed. Lifting the covers, I flopped down next to Martin and closed my eyes.

When I woke up, it was late, and bright, and I was alone in the bed. Rolling onto my back, I kicked the covers off and stretched luxuriously, slipping one hand down to the silky soft cleft between my legs.

"Mmm, last night was awesome," I sighed softly to myself, pressing down on my vulva hard enough to produce a jolt of empty _want_ inside me.

I squirmed happily, my body alight with the echoes of my first tentacle rape. I was less happy about possibly making an enemy of another magical girl, but on balance, last night was pretty great. I finally knew what my combat module was, and I'd acquired a potentially useful contact in Nick.

The muffled voice of Darrek drifted through the wall, followed by a reply from Martin. I rubbed one slick fingertip lightly over my clit, idly listening. At least until I heard my name. I stopped and sat up. Were they talking about me?

Curious, I slipped off the bed and went to the door, pressing my ear to the thin wood.

"...not unprofessional behavior, but if you take a step back and look at this from the outside, she's kind of right," Martin was saying.

"Zoey thinkin' we're unprofessional is hardly news," Darrek scoffed. "That chick won't be happy until we're filling out a form in triplicate every time we cum."

I could almost _hear_ Martin's eyeroll. "I'll tell her you said that."

"Don't you dare!"

"Look, it's been almost a month since we took Cameron in," Martin said. "At this point, even you have to admit we're mixing business and pleasure."

A pit formed in my stomach at the implication.

"Our business _is_ pleasure," Darrek proclaimed. "Or are you gonna complain about having the hottest girl in the city in your bed every night?"

"She offered to alternate," Martin began, only to interrupt himself. "Guh, no, of course I'm not complaining. You have to admit, though, if you haven't _met_ Cameron..."

I relaxed a little.

"Yeah, she's a weird one," Darrek mused. There was a long pause. "Do you think she was really a virgin when we met her?"

"Huh? You think she lied?" Martin asked.

"Well, no. She was a fun but mediocre fuck back at the beginning," Darrek said. "She got real good real fast, though. Like she'd really never done it before and just needed any experience at all."

"So you don't think she lied," Martin said.

"She still gags like a virgin when she's giving head," Darrek added.

I drooped against the door.

I heard a movement from Martin. "Speaking of weird."

"Huh?"

"That really bothers her," Martin said thoughtfully. "Cameron expects so much of herself. The standard she tries to hold herself to is a little ridiculous, actually. I wish I knew why she feels like she needs to..."

"Is it buggin' you that she won't talk much about her past?" Darrek asked.

"We found her living on the street," Martin pointed out. "We still don't know how she ended up like that. Nothing about her adds up. How can one girl be so _sincere_ and at the same time almost act like she's not a person?"

I sighed at that. _Phrasing, Martin._

"Maybe she was raised by a cult," Darrek suggested, whimsical.

The ensuing silence lasted several moments. "No way... you don't think?"

I slapped my forehead into my palm.

"Nah," Darrek continued, "but I bet something bad kept her from gettin' around before we met her. Like she grew up in a sealed bunker."

"I don't think Cameron acts naive or ignorant enough for that," Martin said. "On the other hand... she as good as admitted she'd never had any human contact before we met her."

"So, like, a sealed bunker with internet access," Darrek concluded dryly.

"That... makes a disturbing amount of sense," Martin allowed. "Except, wouldn't she be more socially awkward than she is?"

"Martin, _you_ are socially awkward," Darrek pointed out with a laugh. "But I know what you mean. I've only seen Cameron act awkward when she has to deal with something that doesn't have anything to do with sex."

"Hmm," Martin said. "Do you think she would mind if we asked her?"

Rolling my eyes, I opened the door and strolled out into the common area, faking a yawn, which became a real yawn half-way through. Martin was in the kitchen, throwing away take-out cartons, and Darrek was in his armchair, turned to hang over the backrest. They both shot me guilty looks before covering it up with smiles.

"G'morning, boys," I greeted. I strolled over to the back of Darrek's armchair and draped an arm around his neck, putting his prickly face in my bare boobs as I leaned into him. "You were close, by the way, but I didn't grow up in a bunker."

Darrek froze mid-nuzzle. I grinned down at him. He nipped at my nipple.

Martin ran a hand through his hair, sheepish. "Uh, you heard that?"

"It's fine." I shrugged. "The isolation I suffered in my youth was far more abstract and far less interesting than a physical prison."

"Oh," Martin said.

I smiled as I pulled away from Darrek and headed into the bathroom. "Thanks for caring, though."

Darrek hopped up and followed me. "So hey, you still on with Vanessa for that supply run?"

I nodded at him in the mirror over the sink as I ran my fingers through my hair, helping my Style finish undoing my bedhead. "Yeah, we're meeting up at that mall around four o'clock."

"I was running an idea by Martin," Darrek said. "See if you can find some thigh socks and gloves in something close enough to chroma blue. You know what that is, right?"

"Of course I do," I said, giving him an intrigued glance.

Darrek gave me a thumbs-up. "Sweet."


	9. CAMERON

_May 17th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Westfield Shopping Mall_

In the bustle of the busy, shop-lined atrium, I stared at the two men flanking Vanessa and quirked my eyebrow.

"These're Mike and Ike," Vanessa explained cheerfully. "I picked them up to carry our bags."

I had to ask. "Are their names really...?"

"Yes!" Vanessa enthused smugly. "Do you have any idea how long it took to find a matching bicurious gay couple with the right names and looks?"

My head tilted as I stared at her and asked, "Are you saying you went out to find a Mike who was dating an Ike, just to carry our things today?"

Vanessa nodded, like that was perfectly reasonable thing to do. "Yeah. It took a while, too."

"How long did you spend...?" I trailed off.

"Like six hours!" Vanessa revealed. "But aren't they cute together?"

I inwardly facefaulted at such a ridiculously short amount of time. Outwardly, I settled for shaking my head. Extroverts.

"I am in awe," I admitted to Vanessa. I put on a smile for the two guys who were, in fact, pretty cute together. "Hi. I'm Cameron."

Mike slipped an arm around Ike's waist. "A pleasure. So! Where're we going?"

"Cheap stuff first," Vanessa decided.

She looped her arm through mine and dragged me off towards the big department store at the other end of the atrium. Mike and Ike followed in our wake as she led us through display cases, racks of shoeboxes, up an escalator, and around shelves of t-shirts to a sportswear section.

Vanessa picked out several pairs of yoga pants, explaining, "I bought this brand before, and the seams ripped right open after barely any wear, but the material clings at the edges in a way that'll look real good if you get the tears in the right spots. It'll be perfect for the new gym fantasy shoot."

After that, we cut through a novelty section, where I had to haul Vanessa to a halt when I spotted a rack of socks in eye-gouging primary colors. The blue ones were actually pretty close to the correct shade, but they were only knee-high.

"I don't think that's your color, Cameron," Vanessa opined wryly.

"The boys want to try something with a blue screen effect," I explained.

Vanessa put her hand to her cheek in that thoughtful way, while I pointed my Style at the packaged socks, willing it to copy the pattern directly. My illusory kneeboots dissolved as a simulation of the blue socks took their place. They were stretched tight and didn't even reach my knees.

"I don't think you're supposed to try those on," Ike said, while Vanessa just gave me an exasperated pout.

"I'll put 'em back," I said, allowing my Style to revert the socks back to the lace-up boots of its generative 'slutty and vaguely goth' pattern. I put the unopened package back on its shelf.

Vanessa blinked a couple of times and shrugged, as the Veil nudged her perceptions. From there, we continued into the new and unfamiliar territory of the women's underwear section.

Matching sets of bras and panties hung displayed on clear plastic molds of the female torso. Lone pairs of both filled smaller racks further in, with the packaged bulk varieties shelved at the back. Mike and Ike waited out on the border of the aisle as Vanessa went straight for one of the racks and started testing the elastic on each offering.

"Hm, this one's got the right cut, but the color'll clash under natural light," Vanessa mused as I drifted over to an adjacent rack. "Cameron? Lemme know if you see this in white."

I nodded as I considered my own requirements, browsing the selection in front of me and imagining how I'd look in each. My Style could imitate any piece of clothing of which I had a clear enough memory, if I could spare the concentration, or adjust its generative pattern according to how I wanted to be seen, if I couldn't. That was usually all I needed for my vlog entries or just going about my day. But when it came to real shoots, it was too easy catch the simulated fabric on camera behaving like the illusion it was, so on set I needed to wear actual physical clothing.

I glanced down at myself—into my cleavage, pressed up by a web of simulated black cotton that cradled my breasts like the shadow cast by a pair of mating spiders. It satisfied the bounds of decency, but in a way that only called attention to how close it was to breaking those bounds.

Outerwear, I could borrow from the studio's wardrobe closet. Even in the two ordinary shoots I'd done in the studio, Martin had graciously framed the excuse plots such that I hadn't needed to appear in a bra or panties, but I didn't want to limit him if I didn't have to.

Vanessa came up and peered over my shoulder, breaking me out of my thoughts as she reached around me to lift a frilled white bra off its hook. "So hey, how're you feeling about everything now that you've settled in? I've been meaning to ask."

"Um?" I blinked at her, unprepared for the question.

Vanessa switched the bra for a different size and smiled knowingly. "When I got into porn, it was a natural fit, and it was on my terms. It was a process, y'know?"

"Ah," I said, giving her a wry half-smile. "Yeah, I think my process front-loaded all the introspection and involved more impotent rage than yours."

A giggle burst from Vanessa's lips. "Impotent rage? What?"

I shook my head and deflected with a misleading question. "Do you know what Responsible Adults tend to say to girls who want to have a career in porn when they grow up?"

Vanessa bit her lip. "Not firsthand, but doesn't it usually come down to, don't? Don't, or else?"

I smirked mirthlessly. "They usually use more words than that."

"Well, yeah." Vanessa studied me for a moment. "Y'know, I was pretty promiscuous, growing up. I barely even thought about porn back then. Well, there was the occasional illegal selfie, but that was just for fun. My family already knew that about me, though. I think that made it easier, like, less of a shock, when I came out to them."

I thought I saw what she was getting at, and smiled at her. "Whereas I was entirely celibate right up until you and Cece deflowered me in front of six cameras."

Vanessa grinned and lightly shoved my shoulder. "I like to think self-love counts against one being _entirely_ celibate."

I blinked at her, and my face fell into my hands. "Anyway." I looked at her again. "My family never knew. I don't know what would've happened if I'd talked about it, but I know... I wouldn't have been thrown out over it."

Vanessa softened, touching my arms. "Sorry. I'll stop prying, if you want."

"I don't blame you, but, yeah," I said neutrally. "That would be nice."

Vanessa stepped in, letting her breasts brush against mine as she gave my arms a gentle squeeze. I took that as an invitation and hugged her. A thrill of desire sparked between my legs and spread as Vanessa embraced me, her body soft and warm against my own softness and warmth.

She felt good. She smelled good. I'd gained a lot of experience very quickly, since my rebirth as a magical girl, but fucking Martin and Darrek all the time hadn't desensitized me to holding Vanessa's luscious body.

Vanessa noticed, of course. She giggled softly into my ear and caressed the bare skin of my lower back. "Still thirsty. That's so cute." Then she giggled again. "Don't look now, but we've got a creeper at your eight o'clock."

I frowned as I easily resisted the urge to immediately turn my head. There was a mirror pillar behind Vanessa. I pulled out of the hug and drifted to the side until the reflection lined up. Across the isle, a plain-faced, slightly chubby guy of about thirty browsed the circular clearance racks. Sure enough, he was watching us, head down but eyes up.

"Why is it cute on me but creepy on him?" I wondered softly.

Vanessa snorted. "Are you comparing yourself to the perving rando?"

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked. "Because I'm hot and he's not?"

Vanessa's amusement dimmed. "You're serious?" she asked, and I clearly was, face resolute. She actually looked abashed for a moment. "An admirer, then. We've got an _admirer_ at eight o'clock." She smirked and poked me in the boob. "Still, he shouldn't stare at a pair of innocent young women like that if he isn't at least going to introduce himself."

I rolled my eyes, smiling. "But look at him." I glanced at his reflection in the mirror pillar, picking out the details of the guy's closed-off expression. "Does that scream 'predator' to you? What do you see when you actually look at him?"

I paused, glancing again to reaffirm my impression. Why _was_ I so sure of what I saw? Not just with this guy, but with everyone. It was actually kind of unnerving how easily I'd been reading those signs when my people skills were otherwise mediocre. _Unafraid of rape, nor beholden to love._ Had my soul rewired my social instincts, enhanced my mind somehow?

As far as I could tell, it wasn't a magical ability. The information I got from my magical senses, once I concentrated those on him deliberately, was only raw physical data.

"Pain," Vanessa finally said, confirming my intuition. "Like, kinda sad and shy. Aw." She smirked at me. "I'm still not going to stand here and pose for him. We've got things to buy."

I snickered. "Doesn't a part of you want to go over there and... cheer him up, though?"

"Not my type." Vanessa shrugged. "He'll get laid eventually. That's not up to us."

"You can't know that." I shook my head and sighed. "Can you imagine what it would be like, to be him? To be on the outside, looking in, with nothing to warm you but the constant dread that you'll never get to live in the world where sex is a thing that can happen to you?"

Vanessa gave me a concerned look. "Where did _that_ come from?"

"It's just a guess," I admitted, "but it's a plausible guess. Can you imagine what it would be like, to feel that _trapped_ , and then have someone _completely ignore the facts of your reality_ to tell you, oh, don't worry, I'm not going to help you but I'm sure you'll do fine on your own?"

Vanessa leaned in, smiling gently. "Are we still talking about random admirer guy?"

" _Yes_ ," I insisted. "Mostly. I don't know." I sighed. "Maybe you have to know what it's like to live in an invisible prison before you can recognize someone else's invisible prison."

"Maybe," Vanessa said, dubious and visibly biting down on her curiosity. "Meanwhile, shopping?"

"Yeah," I agreed, even as a plan formed in my mind.

I could be in two places at once. I wasn't using my Duplicate or the necessary mana for anything else. I could keep shopping with Vanessa _and_ sneak off to do something about our admirer, at the same time.

I glanced around as I followed Vanessa deeper among the racks and shelves, looking for a blind spot. I ducked behind a handy shelf and—

Reality stuttered.

—stepped around the front of the shelf, the magic gone from my mind. I started making my way towards the opposite aisle, intending to circle around behind our admirer. If I was right, I couldn't just introduce myself to him and ask if he wanted to fuck me. He wouldn't believe it. If I was right, I needed to be forceful and not give him time to doubt me.

There was a service hallway with a bathroom sign next to it in the nearer corner. I peered at it, spotting an unmarked door. That would probably be private enough.

My simulated panties would just get in the way, so I aimed a thought to dissolve them. Only nothing happened. Because I was a copy, and I didn't have Style. I screeched to a halt.

I was definitely still wearing the same simulated outfit, but I didn't have any control over it. I fingered the edge of my pleated mini-skirt, and it didn't fray, or tear. In fact, it felt as sturdy as real cloth. My whole outfit did, now that I paid attention to the subtle difference.

_I'm a simulation,_ I realized, suddenly understanding. My body, my flesh, was fully physical, and so were my clothes, because it was all the same simulation. _Style must pass its active pattern off to Duplicate in the moment I make a copy._

A slight complication. I tugged at the connection to my real self—

"—this one is ten dollars less," I finished saying to Vanessa as I rethought my plan slightly. I didn't have my biology sense as a copy, either, so I decided to send two copies to make sure I didn't miss any cues.

Ducking out of Vanessa's line of sight, I dissolved my simulated panties. After a moment's thought, I divided my top and installed a pair of small snaps to fasten it in front. Holding the modification, I made one copy, a Cameron appearing in front of me before ducking away, then another—

Everything moved, my magic vanished.

—and I followed my first copy. She went left, I went right. Carefully, I made a wide circle until I was behind random admirer guy, who was actually browsing, with a despondent air, now that Vanessa and the real Cameron were out of sight.

The other Cameron copy emerged into the aisle, smiled at Mike and Ike, and waved them off. They returned to their own conversation, allowing the other copy to meander in my direction. Random admirer guy saw her and froze, flinching when he noticed her looking right at him.

Glancing around to make sure no one else was looking at us, I moved up behind random admirer guy and clapped my hand over his mouth as I pulled him against me. He flinched, violently, flailing in a panic. His elbow nailed me good in the ribs once, but I ignored the pain and dragged him down out of sight.

The other Cameron dashed over and grabbed his legs. He fought like an animal, but he couldn't have been more than two-hundred pounds. Together, the two of me easily carried him into the service hallway, beyond the bathrooms, to the unmarked door. I think a few people might have caught a glimpse of us, but we were moving fast, and I'm sure the image was a bit incongruous.

My top snapped open, working loose under the pressure of his shoulders crushing my tits. The loose snaps flapped under my arms as my breasts spilled out.

Dropping his legs, the other Cameron ripped the door open, and I followed her in, dragging my struggling cargo. It looked like an access tunnel off one of the stock rooms. A few pallets of shrink-wrapped cardboard boxes were laid out along one wall.

One of them was at a convenient knee height. I hauled the guy up onto it, tipping back with him on top of me. He stilled, breathing harshly through his nose, tense with adrenaline. A fleck of snot landed on my knuckle.

The other Cameron stood over us, and we both had a perfectly clear view of her gorgeously plump, bare pussy. I took my hand off his mouth and wiped it on his shirt. He didn't seem to notice.

Finally, his eyes snapped up to the other Cameron's face. "Please don't hurt me I don't matter I don't have anything!"

"Shh," I soothed, while my sister-copy smiled encouragingly. "It's okay. We're not going to hurt you."

"Then, what?" he stammered. "Look, whatever you're going to do, you don't have to! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was staring at you I didn't mean—"

"No," the other Cameron and I said at the same time. "No," she continued, softer. "Don't apologize for that. Never apologize for that. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why are you _doing_ this?" he whined.

The other Cameron sank down and reached for the guy's belt. "I'm really horny," she lied. "I want your cock."

The guy let out a wordless squeak and tried to protect his crotch, but I held his arms and didn't let him. "We want to fuck you. Unless you want us to stop?"

"You, you can't..." he panted in tones of pained disbelief, like the question itself was deeply unfair.

In a way, it was. He had every reason to doubt my sincerity, so he _had_ to resist, to save face and protect himself, but at the same time, it was obvious he couldn't bring himself to refuse, either. If I actually stopped, it would break him.

My sister-copy yanked his pants and underwear down over his hips, revealing a soft penis on a mat of unpleasantly coarse and overgrown pubic hair. I watched the other Cameron's face for any sign of a grimace, but she hid it well.

"Yeep! H-hey!"

"Relax," I murmured to him. "Just relax. You can have this. We want to touch you. We want to see you cum."

The other Cameron unsnapped her top and let her bare breasts spill out. The guy's cock jumped at the sight, growing enough to flop to the side under its own weight. He stared, a whimper of longing leaving him as he waited, wary.

The other Cameron took him into her mouth and slowly nursed him to full hardness. His harsh breaths grew ragged with pleasure. At that point it seemed safe to release him. I let go and slipped out from under him, leaving him propped on his elbows until I rose on my knees and straddled his face.

Popping off of his cock, my sister-copy crawled up on top of him and sat, sinking down to take his cock into her vagina. "Oh god!"

"That's right. That's a pussy. Your cock is in a girl, right now. This is for real." His breath tickled my pussy as I arched, wiggling my hips in his face. "Look at it. Mine's right there, just like the one swallowing your cock. Touch it."

His shaking fingertips grazed once along my labia, and he came, gasping as he ejaculated into the other Cameron. I set to unbuttoning his shirt during his orgasm, so I had it all the way open by the time he recovered. It was a wordless demonstration that we were just getting started.

I ran my hands over his squishy belly and wiggled my hips at his face to draw his attention away from his premature orgasm. "Touch me."

He did.

* * *

 _May 19th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Studio_

A skilled tongue lashed at my clit, bobbing head warm between my thighs. I moaned into Vanessa's hot mouth, lips soft and slick as I clutched at her with my hands in their assigned positions on her nude body. She mirrored me, hands in the same places on my nude body, a man's head between her thighs with the rest of him stretched out behind her.

"Okay," Martin said from close beside us, strapped into his steady-cam, "freeze."

Biting off a whine of denial, I forced my hips, my mouth, my hands, all to hold still. The tongue on my clit retreated, and Vanessa stopped moving as well, even holding her breath for a moment before breathing out slowly through her nose. I wasn't as out of breath as her, but I still had to control my breathing. The rise and fall of our chests pressed my breasts into her breasts, almost nipple to nipple, teasing us both.

"Sorry, girls. Just hold that as best you can, we'll be quick," Martin said. "Cece, key light up by sixteen inches and down by twenty lumens, Darrek, turn on the fill light and get rid of that reflector."

Vanessa's tongue wiggled in my mouth as we knelt together on the white cotton sheets. I tried not to react. The two men whose faces we were sitting on wriggled their way out from beneath us. Mine had told me his name, but I didn't remember it. It started with a J. He had almost exactly the same mocha brown skin tone as Vanessa, hairlessly smooth like only someone with the gene-mod or their own private salon could be, and the slim build of a swimmer.

"Jake, Cass, hang just out of frame, please," Martin instructed, focused intently on the display panel of his camera as he positioned himself. "Little more, hands back, yeah, there. I don't wanna see anything but your dicks when I call action, but keep it hard."

Jake. That was his name. The other guy, Cass, had the same hairless body and build as Jake, but his skin tone was almost an exact match for my own ambiguously fair shade. That was deliberate, since Vanessa and I were also the same height and of similar weights to each other. Martin had been inspired to play with visual symmetries.

Cass shuffled into place, on his knees behind Vanessa, and stroked his dick while he admired her ass. I heard Jake get into the same position behind me.

"Alright, I want you both to wait for Cecelia to count you down, ten fingers, ten seconds from the word go, then move in for the fuck," Martin instructed. "Hands away... and Vanessa, Cameron, go."

I unfroze and resumed making out with Vanessa with a moan of relief. Arching in sync with Vanessa, I thrust my butt out in anticipation of the cock I knew was poised to plunge into me. I made sure to angle my hips to the side a little, towards Martin. At that camera angle even _my_ pussy would stay hidden behind the curve of my ass if I didn't contort a little. Vanessa matched me.

Cass suddenly rocked himself forward towards Vanessa, and I felt the bed shift as Jake moved into place behind me. His hands gripped my butt, squeezing and spreading me. His tip prodded my folds, slipping towards my entrance.

I moaned into Vanessa's mouth as she moaned into my mouth, a cock sliding in to each of us. We broke away from the kiss with a gasp as Jake and Cass started fucking us. Vanessa's hand moved down and palmed my nipple. I mirrored her, grabbing one of her breasts.

Jake and Cass kept their thrusts slow and long, fucking me and Vanessa up against each other. Cecelia was a blur in the corner of my eye, waving her arms to conduct the two men to keep the same timing.

Vanessa found my lips again and we resumed kissing, mauling each other's breasts. The oncoming edge of a lurking orgasm rode hot shivers out across my flesh as Jake's hard cock stroked in and out of me. I tried to hold it back, to wait for Vanessa, but that was a skill I was a long way from mastering. I couldn't stop it myself, and anything I did to delay it would break our symmetry.

Letting out a sharp gasp, my pussy lurched free of my control and convulsed. Jake made a surprised noise, but only faltered for a moment. His cock kept driving into me, interrupting waves of orgasmic spasms with jolting peaks of pleasure.

I trembled, struggling to keep my body from falling out of position. Vanessa helped hold me in place, but she wasn't far behind me, cumming on Cass' cock while I held her.

"Alright, that's cut," Martin said. "Good job, everyone. Clear the bed and we'll set up for the next shot."

I let my hips and spine straighten out, bracing myself on Vanessa as I pushed myself upright. Vanessa let out a soft grunt of displeasure as Cass pulled out of her immediately. Jake chuckled and slammed his cock into me hard, then again, hips slapping my ass twice more to wring a last moan out of me before he pulled out of me and helped me off the bed.

Cecelia bounced over and handed Vanessa some water. Cass excused himself to go to the bathroom. Jake said something that made Vanessa giggle.

I helped Cecelia help Martin out of his steady-cam rig, then wandered back over to Vanessa and Jake. I grabbed Jake's shiny, half-erect cock to interrupt whatever he was saying and gave him a few firm tugs as I turned to Vanessa.

"Hey, Vanessa, you remember that guy, from the mall the other day?" I asked.

Vanessa glanced away, thoughtful. "Guy?"

"The one watching us buy underwear," I said. The one I'd secretly dragged off and fucked until he cried on my tits.

"Oh, him." Vanessa frowned. "What about him?"

"It just got me thinking," I said. I needed to frame this the right way. "It got me thinking about ways the world could suck less, for men and women like him. Because for every one you notice, out in public, there must be _hundreds_ hidden away, watching _us_ through their only window into a world they know they'll never touch."

"Well," Jake said, sounding casual even while I gave him a handjob. "If they're not bothering anybody, what's the problem?"

I took my hand off his cock and poked him in the chest. "That. That's the problem, right there. There are so many of them, the sexually deprived, that it's a cliche, and they're all suffering, all the time, never acknowledged by anyone."

"We do acknowledge them, though," Vanessa said, serious. "I mean, it is more fun to imagine the folks fapping over us are all hot-bodied hunks and babes revving up for an orgy, but I don't think any of us are even tempted to pretend that's true. I even did a whole episode celebrating fan faps!"

"I'm a little tempted," Jake contributed as he ran his hand over my ass.

I ignored him, offering Vanessa a smile. "I remember that episode. It was lovely. I've been trying to pay that sentiment forward in some of my vlogs, because it does help. But..."

"But?" Vanessa prompted.

"Butt!" Jake added, giving me a light spank and grope.

Shooting him a dry glance, I continued, "Just telling them we're happy to have them fapping over us _is_ the right kind of validating, but it's... still part of the fantasy. It's still part of the world they're not allowed to touch. It doesn't affect their reality."

"I've had more than a few of my subscribers meet me for sex," Vanessa said. She smirked. "I like to think I affected _their_ reality."

I bounced. "Exactly. Isn't that a great feeling? Imagine if we could scale that up."

"Scale up?" Vanessa repeated, face thoughtful. "How would you do that?"

"A sister-site to _Lewd &Clued_, _Quin's Quims_ , and your show," I said. "I was thinking I could call it _Virgin Therapy_. Real virgins can sign up through the website to make a video with me."

Vanessa giggled. "Oh wow, that's an adorable idea."

"What's an adorable idea?" Darrek strolled over to join us. He was shirtless, but fully dressed from the waist down. He put his arms around Vanessa's waist from behind her.

"Cameron wants to start her own site," Vanessa explained.

"A sister-site, called _Virgin Therapy_ ," I repeated, "where I let site subscribers sign up to come on and have their first times with me, for real."

"Huh." Darrek grinned. "Y'know, I'm all for authenticity, but even with your stamina, the waiting list for that is gonna end up longer than the Los Angelus skyway."

"Thanks," I said wryly. My plan did kind of hinge on my Duplicate module, but I couldn't _tell_ him that.

"For serious, though," Darrek said. "If you have to vette someone new before every shoot, you're going to have trouble with volume, and you'll _still_ be putting yourself at more risk than I'd think you'd want."

"I know," I said, firm. I quirked my lips. "It'll still be safer than dating."

Darrek snorted. "That might be a stretch."

"I dunno," Vanessa teased, grinding her naked butt against his pants. "When everything gets recorded, everyone's accountable. I _know_ I've told you that's why the only sex I _won't_ have is private sex."

"True," Darrek said.

"I also figure I can get a reasonable filtering effect with the right presentation," I added. "That's going to be the hard part. I _want_ to alienate the kind of man who knows he can... get sex anywhere else. Calling the site _Virgin Therapy_ is only the first step in that. At the same time, it has to be utterly clear to those without hope that this _is_ for them."

Jake stared at me. His face was incredulous but he kept his opinion to himself. Darrek and Vanessa, who knew me at all, were more thoughtful.

"Hmm," Vanessa said. "That could work, but if you want to dress it up like a public service, you'll have to be very careful with your monetization strategy. You'll be straying dangerously close to the prostitution laws."

"That's why I wanted your advice," I admitted. "You know a lot more than I do about where those lines are drawn—"

A ringtone interrupted me. The one I'd set for Bree's number. It warbled around me, distorted and hazy, but distinct. I reached behind my back and pulled my tablet out of my Pocket, the ringtone suddenly clear.

Jake blinked at me. "Where were you keeping that...?"

"Excuse me for a moment," I said, heading off towards the hallway as I tapped the screen to answer the call. "Bree?"

"Cameron!" the younger magical girl's voice hissed. "I've got one! An erophage! I found another one! I wasn't even looking, but she's right there!" She paused, and I heard her mumble, "This is some messed up voyeuristic feeling..."

"Now?" I blurted in surprise. "It's the middle of the day!"

"Yes, right now!"

"Where are you?" I asked.

"West end of Nob Hill," Bree hissed. "Oh jeez, she just..."

I growled, " _Don't_ —"

"Let her see me," Bree finished. "I _know_ , Cameron. Just hurry."

I was already reaching out. A second Cameron, as naked as I was, appeared next to me, fingertips to fingertips. She blinked, nodded, and shoo'd me as she turned around and headed back onto the set.

Racing to the stairwell, I wrenched the door open and bounded up to the roof access. Bursting out into the overcast daylight, I chanted my transformation aria while I oriented myself. My metallic green corset rippled onto my torso, heavy boots crawled up my legs, and just as I leaped from the edge of the roof my soul snapped awake, allowing a large hexagonal Planar Shield to form under my feet.

* * *

 _May 19th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Nob Hill_

The first time, I'd attacked before I knew anything, and wasted the opportunity. The second time, Bree wasn't there and I lost the erophage during the pursuit. The third erophage caught on that we were following her, and I'd killed that one the same as the first so she couldn't give us away.

This time, I'd get it right.

Following Bree's directions, I sprinted over the urban grid, wishing I had a faster means of travel. Scanning the rooftops ahead of me, I spotted Bree—a delicate, girlish figure wrapped in shiny green ribbons and white leather accessories—and slung myself into a slide off the edge of my last shield.

She darted up into the air and caught me. Her buoyancy spell had the same limitations as my healing spell. She had to touch me for it to affect me. She brought us down quietly behind an air conditioning unit, where I cranked up Perfect Incarnation on myself until I wasn't out of breath anymore.

"Hi," I said.

Across the street, through the slats of some half-open blinds, a candy-red female shape undulated on top of someone. A part of me wanted to leap across the gap, rip her apart and take her place. What these fey did was far worse than rape. They were a corrupted wish—a violation of hope itself.

"What's our strategy, this time?" Bree asked.

"At night," I said, thinking it through, "we'd have to stay close enough to keep her in range of your air sense. But it's light out. We'll be able to _see_ her. You can take us up high and we can just follow her from above. Can you fly fast enough while you're carrying me?"

Bree nodded seriously. "You'll slow me down, but I'm way faster than any fey has ever been."

I tried to think of ways this could go wrong. "Is our shadow going to give us away?"

"It's overcast," Bree said, glancing up. "Our shadow will be pretty much invisible."

I nodded. "Good."

For a long moment, we hid behind the air conditioner and watched in silence, as the erophage fucked her victim in that townhouse. Above me, Bree pulled her head in and the roof-gravel crunched softly as she set her feet down.

Behind me, Bree let out a squeak of embarrassment and mumbled, "Someone's excited."

I glanced over my shoulder and caught her averting her eyes from my exposed lower half with a grimace on her face. I still didn't see any hint of latent desire in her reaction to my body.

"I was at work when you called," I said plainly.

"At work?" Bree repeated. Her eyes got huge, and she blushed. "Oh!"

"Yeah," I said, frowning at the townhouse's window. The candy-red woman's movements slowed. I froze. "Bree."

Bree peeked around the corner of the air conditioner above me again. "Is she...?"

"Take us up now," I said. "You have to take us up now."

"Are you sure? What about the victim?" Bree asked.

"We'll come back for him." Exposure to the paralyzing nectar wasn't usually fatal. "We can't let her see us on her way out. We have to be in the sky before she finishes."

"Okay," Bree said. She gripped me under my arms. "Hang on."

The air itself supported my weight as Bree lifted me off the roof. She flew us straight up towards the clouds. My ears popped as we climbed, and the ocean breeze became a chilly wind. We slowed, hovering maybe half way to the bottoms of the clouds.

Bree created a bubble of still air for us, and we waited.

A tiny red figure emerged from the roofs below and took wing. I pointed, and Bree tightened her grip on me. The erophage flew west, skimming rooftops. I stayed tense, worried we'd lose her somehow, but she traced a line that was almost straight. Tracking her proved to be all too easy.

Finally, she circled around this one large, old-fashioned house in a stately, upscale neighborhood. The candy-red fey swooped down and passed through a skylight.

"Now what?" Bree asked.

"Do you see any scouts? Guards? Watchposts?" I asked, squinting.

Bree reached into her Pocket and pulled out a pair of binoculars. I blinked. That was handy. Bree shifted her grip, pulling me closer to free up her hands.

"I don't see any movement on the roof," Bree reported. "I think we can go in for a closer look."

I nodded, jostling Bree's binoculars. "Let's go. Be quick. Even if we won't be spotted right away, I don't want to give them more of a chance to notice us than we have to."

"Okay." Bree cut her spell, and we plummeted into exhilarating freefall.

The wind whipped at me. The shingled roof rushed closer. At the last second, Bree brought us to a jarring stop in the corner where two peaks met at right angles. I let out a slow breath and motioned towards the skylight.

"Keep watch," I whispered.

Bree nodded and set me down. I inched forward, peeking in through the glass.

"Holy fuck," I breathed.

Inside, a dozen nude girls with candy-red skin and leathery wings stood in a rough line down the center of a massive greatroom. At the head of the line, at one end of the room, an impossibly beautiful nude woman with lavender skin and snowy hair reclined in a sex swing like it was her own personal throne. Her slightly swollen belly didn't detract from that impression.

This had to be her. The mistress. Two human-looking men flanked her, dressed in floor-length coats with openly displayed machine guns.

As I watched, she beckoned forward the winged candy-red erophage at the front of the line. The lesser fey trembled in place as an erect, glistening phallus erupted from her crotch. The mistress spread her legs, and the candy-red erophage moved in. The lesser fey plunged her cock into her mistress's drooling pussy, grabbed the straps of the swing, and slammed her hips forward like she had a desperate need to cum.

The mistress merely smiled, approving.

The winged futanari climaxed quickly, hilting herself deep in her mistress's vaginal tunnel as she spasmed with pleasure. I may have imagined it, but it looked like her already-flat belly shrank slightly, while the mistress's belly swelled to match.

Once she was done, the lesser fey stepped away, phallus retreating into her body. She retreated into the shadowed edges of the greatroom to join many more of her kind where they rested on fancy pillows gathered along the walls.

The next of the candy-red girls stepped forward, sprouted a penis, and repeated the performance, depositing her collected semen in her mistress's womb. I began to nurse a suspicion about what I was seeing, but that was secondary to a simpler realization. All those erophages laying around the room were empty, and therefore safe to kill.

"Incoming!" Bree hissed softly.

I tore myself away from the skylight and nodded, holding out my arms. Bree grabbed me. I felt the air take my weight. Bree dove off the roof, carrying me with her as she zipped off into the city.

* * *

We returned to the anonymous townhouse, where Bree had found the erophage, to discover the victim dead in his bed. I hung from the window frame, peering in through the half-open blinds. Inside, the unfit body of a naked man rested on his side in a pool of blood, soaking through his sheets and dripping to the floor. A boxknife rested next to him, opposite his sliced-open arm.

"Did he die?" Bree asked nervously from above me.

"Not from nectar poisoning," I said softly. "He killed himself."

"Whoa what? Really?"

The window was locked, so I punched through the glass. Jagged shards tumbled to the floor. Unlocking the window, I shoved it up and swung myself inside. The broken glass crunched under my boots.

Bree said nothing, but she hovered outside, watching.

The man on the bed appeared to be about forty, unfit but not fat, with a light olive tan on his face and arms. He was still warm, and I sensed residual brain activity. He also still had nectar in his system. The muscles in his arms were torn, and his penis had terrible bruises and chafing. I pushed my Cleansing Aura out to take care of the nectar and leaned down to heal him.

His body visibly inflated as Perfect Incarnation replaced his blood. He stirred, whimpering softly. After what I suspected had happened, I didn't want him to wake up alone. I reached out. Could I use Duplicate without including anything I wore? Yes, I could.

A copy of me appeared, entirely nude. She crawled onto the bed next to the man and gave me a nod. I slipped out the window and let Bree carry me up to the roof.

"So, that happened," Bree said. "Are you, I mean the other you, really gonna...?"

"I think the erophage left him nectar-dosed but not all the way paralyzed," I explained. "He couldn't stop masturbating, not even when it hurt so much he couldn't stand it..." I shook my head.

A wide-eyed Bree took a measured breath. "Yikes."

"We found the lair," I said. "We can stop them. I'm _going_ to stop them. C'mon. We have an assault to plan."

* * *

 _May 20th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Lafayette Park_

Under a dark sky just beginning to bleed into dawn, I sat on a stone bench beneath an oak tree and considered my three spells.

Healing, cleansing, and shields. To fight a whole lair full of enemies, I knew I needed something more. Something to even the odds. According to rumor, Reinforcement Mages were known for shields and healing, but also for physical enhancement spells. That made sense. Perfect Incarnation was, in fact, a force spell at its core. I'd tested it and I was measurably harder to injure in the first place while I had it at full power.

As I poured over the structure of Perfect Incarnation, I saw how I could base a new spell on that piece, modify it, and get a pure durability buff. That result was strictly inferior to Perfect Incarnation, but it was a starting point. In simplified form, I had the leeway to make the spell ranged and persistent, like my shields. That would let me cast it on my Duplicate copies.

If I had a way to enhance my duplicates in combat, that would be huge. A literal force multiplier. Durability wasn't enough, though. My duplicates dispelled if they took a mortal wound, but I could just keep making new ones. No, there had to be a way to turn it around and get a strength buff instead.

"Cameron?"

My eyes flew open as my spellshards slipped from my mental grasp. Bree stood in front of me, peering at me curiously. She wore full leggings and a tight shirt under a short denim skirt and half-jacket. Her usual Style, adjusted for extra warmth.

"Have a seat," I suggested.

Bree yawned as she sat next to me. "It's so early. Why're we doing this now?"

"The erophages use wet dreams to home in on their prey," I reminded her. "That's why they're more active at night, when more people are asleep. Based on what we saw yesterday, they're probably hunting around the clock, but there's still probably going to be more of them in the lair in the morning than at any other time."

"Okay," Bree said. She yawned again.

"Did you get what I asked for?" I asked.

Bree bit her lip and slid her phone out of her Pocket. "A fey boundary ward. Yeah, I asked Puchuu and it pointed me to a design, but we'd still have to draw it out by hand." She shook her head. "I think we should use a Worldshift instead? I know another magical girl who has one and she said she'd help."

"What's a Worldshift?" I asked. I vaguely remembered seeing the term before.

"Oh! You don't know? It's a utility mod that forces you and everyone around you, like, half-way into the Crossroads," Bree explained. "It puts you in, like, a bubble of randomness, but unless something goes wrong it's always enclosed, and fey can't walk through walls in the Crossroads."

"Yes," I said, rubbing my face. "If I'd known that was a thing..."

Bree smiled awkwardly. "Okay! I told her to meet us here. Do you wanna wait? To go over the plan?"

"Might as well." The plan wasn't very complicated. Bree's change didn't alter it that much, and actually got rid of one of the larger failure points.

I closed my eyes and delved back into my spellshards. The durability code took two of the outputs of my biology-sensing spellshards iterated through their differences, and ultimately fed the resulting map into a spellshard that generated kinetic forces. If something tried to deform my flesh into a shape it shouldn't occupy, the spell pushed back, automatically.

As an aside, it was amusing to realize that I had the tools to become telekinetic if I really wanted to be. It would've been horribly clumsy and inefficient, though. I'd need a separate spell for each cardinal direction, so I'd have to use all six of my spell slots just to move one object around in three dimensions, and the spells would error out if I tried to move my own body with them.

There didn't seem to be an intended way to apply kinetic force to things I touched, either. It should've been simple to invert the durability spell so it applied force to the object doing the deforming instead of to my flesh, but I couldn't see a way to do it. I had two halves of a complete spell that refused to combine.

No, that wasn't completely true. If I discarded the recursive anchoring portion and borrowed from Planar Shield's targeting mechanism instead... A new spell clicked into existence.

I opened my eyes and aligned it. Beside me, Bree also had her eyes closed, but I was pretty sure she was just dozing. Fifteen seconds, and, " _Inviolate Stand!_ "

The pressure of hard concrete against my butt vanished as the stabbing pain of mana strain burst behind my eyeballs. A deafening _crack_ echoed through the brisk night air.

"Glah!" Bree yelped, bolting awake. "What was that?!"

I shook off the pain and looked down. A web of cracks stretched across the concrete of the bench, radiating out from under my butt. It felt like I was floating, unsupported but weightless.

Slowly grinning, I turned to Bree and held out my hand. "Try to move my arm."

Bree stared at me. "Huh?"

"My arm," I repeated. "Try to move it."

"Okay?" Bree grabbed my wrist and pulled. I didn't feel it at all. "Whoa! You feel like a statue! What's going on?"

"New spell," I explained, bouncing. Or, I tried to bounce. The bench creaked under my thighs, and my feet sank five inches into the dirt, but I didn't move. I frowned.

Bree casually did a hand-stand on my outstretched arm. I still didn't feel her weight at all. She flipped lightly back onto the cracked bench. "That's neat! But, how'd you get a new spell?"

"I made it just now," I told her. I tried to stand up and winced as my thighs ground into the bench. I still didn't move. I couldn't feel the ground under my feet either, but pushing down sent a spiking pain through my head.

"You can _do_ that?" Bree blurted. "But Puchuu told me patrons have to... You can make your own spells?"

"Where else would I get them?" I stopped trying to stand up and just ended the spell, wincing as I sank into the jagged butt-shaped depression in the cracked concrete under me. "Well, this is nominally useless."

"Useless?" Bree repeated, surprised.

"For enhancing my Duplicate selves," I explained with a sigh. "This spell cancels out _all_ external forces. It's indiscriminate. So if I can't turn it off, I can't move my center of mass at..." I trailed off. Inviolate Stand had _ranged persistence_. I didn't have to cast it on _myself_.

"Cameron?" Bree prodded.

"Hold on." I dove back into my spellshards. I'd tried for a strength buff and stumbled on the makings of a _binding_ spell. Could I keep the anchoring but use the original kinetic force code to hold an enemy still? No. Kinetics acting on the flesh refused to click with the remote anchoring part—a mirror of the previous compatibility problem.

"Shit," I opined.

"What is it?" Bree asked.

"Just an idea," I said, cracking a yawn of my own. "It didn't work. Still, I've got a new spell with some situational applications. That's better than nothing."

Bree smiled. "Yeah."

"Is your friend getting here soon?" I wondered.

After checking her phone and staring at it in surprise, Bree straightened and twisted around to scan the park. I shifted in my seat, feeling a sharp point dig into my skin. I moved over to a less damaged section of bench.

"Oh, that's her over there. Bee arr bee," Bree said. She hopped up and jogged towards a girl at the other end of the path, where the park met the street. I sat back and yawned. Bree returned, leading a girl slightly taller than her with curly black hair and thin meganekko glasses. "Cameron. This is Annabelle. Annabelle, this is—"

"You!" the so-named Annabelle cried. "Eeep!"

Words failed me. Bree's friend was Luminous Charm. Hello, all-new failure points. I put my face in my hands and rubbed my eyes. It was too early for this.

"You've... met?" Bree asked, cringing.

"We've met," I confirmed. "There was, a tentacle monster involved."

"Bree!" Annabelle said nervously. "Rousing Salve attacked me and threatened to rape me! What're you doing with her?"

Oh was that how she remembered it. Of course it was.

Bree slowly looked from Annabelle to me, and back to Annabelle. "I'm sure it was a misunderstanding?"

I sighed, discarded the first ten things I wanted say, and asked, "How eager would you be to kill a fey if you knew its death would curse several innocent men with impotence for a year?"

"Ew," Annabelle said. "And, what? Are there fey like that?"

"Actually that's what we're hunting," Bree said, "is fey like that."

Annabelle blinked owlishly. "Oh. Uh. And you want my help to kill them?"

"No," I said, glaring at her. I stood up, dusting concrete grit off my backside. "I don't trust you not to set off the curse on purpose."

"I wouldn't!" Annabelle insisted. "I don't want anyone getting cursed, not even if the curse _is_ harmless."

"Harmless," I repeated flatly. "Have you ever even _had_ an orgasm?"

"No!" Annabelle blurted. "I mean, yes! I mean, of course I have!" She blushed bright red, eyes flickering down my body before averting with haste.

I blinked. Did she just...? No, not important right now. "Look, the plan is simple. The erophages have a lair with a mistress who they _fuck_ with their _big throbbing futacocks_ until they _pump her womb_ full of _thick hot jizz_ stolen from the men they raped." Okay, maybe I was being a little petty, enjoying the way Annabelle flinched at my deliberately pornographic phrasing. But I wanted to be clear. "It is only after an erophage _drains her girldick dry_ that she can be killed without cursing her victims. So that's when we'll hit the lair."

Annabelle stared at me like I was some kind of eldritch nightmare. But at the same time—I cheated and used my magical senses—yes, her nipples were rock-hard and her pussy was wet enough to leak. Maybe she wasn't a horrible prude after all. Maybe she was just very, very gay, and had a hard time thinking about men's sexuality in _any_ context.

"Oh, okay," Annabelle squeaked. "That makes sense."

"Are you sure?" I needled her. "De-sexing some random men doesn't strike you as tempting?"

Bree stepped in. "Cameron, leave her alone."

I sighed and looked away. "This is important, Bree."

"You are messed up in the head," Annabelle mumbled at me. She straightened up and took a deep breath. "But I kinda get why you freaked out at me, that night, if this is what you're like. But this time it sounds like we agree that there's fey that need to die, and I'd _rather_ no one got cursed. So there! Power of friendship, bitch!"

A small snicker escaped me before I could stop it.

"It might not even matter," Bree said, relaxing. "Um. Annabelle, once you've Worldshifted us, will you even have enough mana left to fight? We need to grab a pretty big mansion house."

Annabelle frowned cutely. "Oh dang, you're right. I'll have to hide while you do all the fighting."

"See?" Bree said. "That works out then. You and Cameron don't have to fight together. We'll each do our part and we can all go home happy."

I smiled wanly at Bree. "Alright."

"Okay," Annabelle ventured. "What's our first step?"

* * *

 _May 20th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Pacific Heights_

The three of us loitered at the end of the block while I landed a camera drone on the lair's skylight. I'd borrowed the little quadcopter from Martin. It was about the size of a deck of cards, and it was designed for easy remote piloting via a touch screen.

I sat on a retaining wall with Bree and Anabelle peering over my shoulders. Bree kept looking away with a grimace, but Annabelle watched with stricken fascination, like a cute little lesbian who'd never seen porn before.

Same as yesterday, the lavender-skinned mistress lounged in her sex-swing like it was a throne, at the head of a greatroom crammed full of naked candy-red winged girls, either waiting for her turn at their mistress's cunt or already resting on the cushions by the walls. Tinny moans and fleshy slaps sounded from my tablet's speakers as the drone picked up distorted audio through the glass.

An erophage gasped as she ejaculated, sheathed deep in lavender pussy, and the mistress spoke, "Nine new thralls. Well done, Vyla."

"Thank you, Mistress Olandra."

Olandra. I finally had a name.

The same two men in black coats stood behind Olandra, armed with machine guns. I adjusted the angle to get a better look at them, but didn't see anything new.

"Are..." Annabelle suddenly croaked. She swallowed. "Are those Ebon Mint thugs-for-hire?"

I looked up sharply. "What?"

"Those men," Annabelle said. "That's how the Ebon Mint dresses their shock troopers."

"So?" Bree asked.

"I don't know," Annabelle said. "It makes me nervous, though."

"She—Olandra—said thralls," I said.

"Thralls for what?" Bree wondered. "And what thralls?"

"I don't know," I said, "but I have to assume she's talking about the men all that cum came from. We absolutely have to keep her alive, okay? We can't risk that many lives."

"We don't even know what she is," Annabelle pointed out.

"That's my point," I said. "We don't know what killing her might do. If we capture her, can you get the Puchuu to tell us?"

Bree and Annabelle looked at each other and shrugged. "Probably?" Bree ventured. "It's not like they give us a way to call them..."

On my tablet screen, another candy-red futanari finished fucking Olandra and went to rest. Olandra herself looked swollen, almost pregnant. There were only a handful of erophages still in line.

"Get ready," I said. "It's almost time."

Finally, the last erophage in line sank her dick into Olandra's pussy and started thrusting. I slid my tablet into my Pocket and stood up, nodding to Bree and Annabelle. Time to move.

Annabelle took a deep breath. "Shine down on this world of shadows! Illuminate! As the Prismatic Warrior Luminous Charm!"

Aurora light ate away Annabelle's simulated outfit in an instant. Shimmery translucent fabric sprouted out of itself starting around her breasts and spreading to form her gold-accented glass-like prom dress.

"Like a leaf on the wind, Swift Darling Dancing Breeze shall soar through all opposition!" Bree chanted.

Bree's simulated clothes misted away in an auroric glow. Shiny green ribbons sprouted out of themselves, covering her breasts and groin in a flatteringly-cut bikini before before winding around her torso and down her thighs. White straps mirrored into place around her calves, expanding into leather sandals, matched by her headband and fingerless gloves.

"Unafraid of rape, nor beholden to love, I will not be diverted from this, the one true cause. Every enemy of lust shall beware, Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve!"

Simulated cloth disintegrated, leaving me nude. Heavy jet black boots rippled into place on my feet and crawled up my legs as a shiny sheath adorned with jade buckles and small emerald jewels, rising precisely to the height at which my thighs were closest to touching before my flesh curved out to either side of my bare vulva. At the same time, a line traced up from my navel to my sternum before a metallic green lattice mirrored outwards to tuck a sturdy but flexible underbust corset around my midriff. A few pleats of black fabric emerged from the bottom of the corset over my hips, suggesting the idea of a skirt if only to draw attention to how much I wasn't wearing one. Black cords sprouted from under my breasts, curling up to support me but cover nothing. Emerald-patterned sleeves grew out of themselves on my arms, finishing with a metallic hardening around my wrists.

Annabelle stared at me with her mouth open.

"Charm! You're up!" I barked. I summoned my weapon. " _Emerald Bliss!_ "

She snapped out of it and nodded. The three of us sprinted up to the corner of the property. Bree swooped forward and plucked Annabelle and I off the ground, flying us up over the lair's roof.

"Alright, here goes!" Annabelle announced. "Get ready!"

Reality shattered. The huge three-story house flowered open, melding into the shearing breaks in the sky and surrounding space. Inner bits and outer walls slid off into infinity as kaleidoscopic barriers solidified out of random bits of house, city, and street, until the volume of the entire plot of land was replaced and enclosed.

Nude candy-red skin and wings. The erophages boiled outwards in a spiraling swarm. I locked onto Olandra, picking her distinctive coloration out of the chaos. I met her incredulous, hateful eyes, and cast Inviolate Stand on her, trapping her, invulnerable but immobile. An erophage tried to move her, and died when Olandra accidentally crushed her, bisecting the lesser fey through the waist.

The last of the real world vanished between the cracks. Gravity went away as a thousand contradictions canceled each other out, leaving everything weightless. Bree released us and whirled on the Ebon Mint thugs, streaking off.

Ignoring the ensuing chatter of gunfire, I used Duplicate four times. One copy behind me, one standing on my feet, then two more to fill in the pattern as I move out of the way. A casting of Inviolate Stand on each of them. That was nearly half my mana, gone.

It would have to be enough.

Kicking off a shield, I slammed into an erophage, spun, and hurled her towards the formation of Camerons. One snagged her and tore her head from her neck.

I reoriented and went for my next target, fighting my instinct to define 'up' and 'down'. I knew the key to fighting in zero gravity was to resist the urge to cling to one frame of reference. Regardless of position, I was directly above my target. Always.

I hurled erophage after erophage into the deadly grasp of my enhanced duplicates, using my shields to maneuver. When they tried to stay out of reach, I switched to orb blasts, sniping the furthest targets where my orbs hit like a tank shell.

I glimpsed a man in black hurtle across the space in front of me and slam into the kaleidoscopic boundary wall with a sickening crunch. The sound of gunfire had stopped, but none of the fey cared enough to notice either way. Bullets passed straight through them without having any effect.

They tried to swarm me again. I switched back to punching, kicking, swinging, and throwing them to their doom at the hands of the four-Cameron formation. Surrounded, I jerked to a halt with Inviolate Stand. I slammed two more erophages into each other, ripping one's wing off as I drove my hand through her chest, then tore her in half at the ribcage as the other one's skull shattered between my boots.

Grimly, I dispelled Inviolate Stand and kicked off a Planar Shield, bursting through the eerily bloodless gore before it faded, and emerged into clear air.

Bree streaked into the swarm like an arrow. She let off a concussive blast, sending erophages slamming into each other in uncontrolled tumbles. Bree whipped around, throwing out vacuum blades. The blades didn't cut anything solid, but they parted the air, creating a layer of vacuum that collapsed violently, stunning a dozen fey at once and rupturing flesh. A compact slingshot-bow appeared on Bree's wrist, and she use it to fire bolts of magic which hit with at least as much force as my orbs, ripping through the fey in the way bullets couldn't.

An incongruous laugh cut through the roar of battle and the screams of the dying. Bits of hair, or nail, or wing membrane floated around, scattered among hundreds of little glowing spheres—all that remained of the dead fey—but there were still too many alive and fighting to count. I didn't have a thought to spare for the laughter.

A blinding spike of agony made my vision white out. I screamed, clutching my head as I tumbled off course. A spell broke, my mana overwhelmed. As the pain passed, I slammed my head back into the face of the erophage that had latched onto my back, then twisted and used my momentum to crush her between my body and a shield.

Olandra was free. She floated about a quarter of the way around the circumference of the kaleidoscopic bubble, clutching a large steel pole in her hands, mangled but solid.

A burst of gunfire—I choked in surprise that the bullets had shredded through my gut, wounds bleeding auroric light as my body disintegrated—I spun towards the center of the battle. Only two of my copies remained, snatching at but missing the erophage that bore one of the discarded machine guns. With a start, I remembered being one of the copies just before Olandra broke free. _The pain must've covered the merge._

The armed erophage swooped away, strafing Bree with a sustained burst. Blood sprayed. Bree screamed. I kicked off a shield, leaping towards her.

The surviving erophages—only half a dozen or so—rallied once Bree's devastating attacks ceased. I splashed through the cloud of blood droplets, dodging around Bree's bare, severed left arm. As we collided, I spun us around. I slammed back-first into the boundary wall and immediately threw up a large Planar Shield. Bullet impacts stitched back and forth over the thrumming hexagon.

I healed Bree. She lurched in my arms with gasp, watching a new arm grow from her shoulder. The glove of her raiment grew back with the flesh, like it had already been there, waiting.

"Aoow _fuck_ that hurt," Bree whimpered. "Thanks." She held out her restored arm. " _Heaven's Gale!_ " Her sling-bow formed on her wrist.

The remaining erophages—seven candy-red nude girls with wings, faces twisted in rage, one armed with an assault rifle, all of them with wet, throbbing cocks protruding from their vulvae—circled on the other side of my shield. The two surviving Cameron copies looked on, now irrelevant.

"What happened to the other gun?" I asked, watching the enemy through the glimmer of my shield. As my eyes passed over the one with the gun again, I felt a faint spark of recognition...

"Broke it," Bree panted. "Meant to get both, but."

"Wait, where's Ola—"

Annabelle screamed.

I saw the heads of my copies turn, and acted on instinct. I dispelled them both—the scream was across the kaleidoscopic bubble, at an angle from the real Cameron—and dropped my shield. In the instant the erophages were distracted by the scream, I lunged out, launching all four orbs at once.

Each, an emerald streak, detonated and destroyed an enemy fey, rending flesh and bone.

I leaped through the cleared space, soaring across open air. Olandra had Annabelle by the neck, dragging her out of her hiding spot. I pulled my legs in and made a copy, boot to boot with me. We sprang apart, bringing her to a stop while doubling my speed. Gunfire rang out, bullets streaking through the space behind me, then abruptly cut off—Bree caught the last three erophages from behind with a vacuum blade and I dispelled myself—as I plummeted towards Olandra and Annabelle.

Olandra didn't try to negotiate. She snapped Annabelle's neck and threw her body at me. Instantly, reality shuddered, and the kaleidoscopic landscape began to shift and thin, bits of house and city vanishing into their reflections. I crashed into Annabelle's limp form, tumbling with her as gravity writhed.

The blue of the sky spread through the cracks as the real world emerged from the chaos, breaching a surface I couldn't perceive.

I fell from above the mansion house, holding Annabelle's naked body, and crashed through the skylight in a shower of jagged shards. I healed on reflex, hitting the floor of the greatroom with glass slicing into my skin. Glass bounced off the floor around me until it finally came to rest.

With a grinding noise, Annabelle's neck unbroke. Her eyes snapped open and she started coughing. Laying naked on a bed of broken glass wasn't a great place to thrash around. My healing was the only thing keeping her from cutting herself to ribbons.

As Bree wafted down through the broken skylight, Annabelle calmed down. I carefully looked around. The place was empty, of course. All the fey were dead, remains scattered in the Crossroads. There was no sign of Olandra either.

"What happened?" Annabelle croaked. "I'm alive—eek! Naked!"

A simple simulated jeans and shirt materialized on Annabelle's body. She sat up carefully and managed not to cut herself again. Bree hovered down and pulled us both to our feet.

"So," Bree said, looking around. "Did we win? I think we won."

Annabelle just shuddered wordlessly.

"Let's search the house," I suggested.

* * *

We didn't find anything interesting or incriminating. The house was three empty floors with no other furniture, and a light coating of dust.

The three of us met up again in the greatroom, all of us in our raiments. I noticed the way Annabelle couldn't seem to stop sneaking glances at my lower half, but I pretended I didn't.

I was still worried about Olandra's escape, but, "We did something good, today."

"Yeah," Bree said, pensive. "Those guys were human."

"Fey aren't mindless," I pointed out. "They exist and they don't want to die, but we kill them anyway."

"But fey can't change, can't be redeemed, can't be reasoned with," Annabelle recited. "They're born as they die, immutable. It's different."

I shook my head, but I didn't want to argue about morality. As a distraction, I pulled my tablet out, tapped an icon, and asked, "Who owns this house?"

Chime. " _The property at this address is privately held under the name, Patricia Kelly. No contact information is available._ "

"That's it?" I complained. I shrugged and put my tablet back in my Pocket. "I guess we're done, then."

"Bree?" Annabelle spoke up. "Fly me home?"

Bree smiled. "Oh, yeah, sure. Do you need a lift, Cameron?"

"Thanks, but no. I feel like walking."

* * *

 _May 21st, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

Raindrops beat softly on the window behind me as I sat down in front of the camera. I was naked, lit carefully from the side to make my skin look warm without washing out the cool light of the rainy day. I glanced at my script and began.

"Hey, lewdettes. I've got some exciting news for you," I began. "If you're one of the, like, three people who don't skip straight to the good parts, then you already know I have some pretty strong opinions about involuntary celibacy."

I stopped, noted my position, and got up to adjust the zoom, zooming out by a predetermined amount. I returned to my seat, which was actually a saddle vibrator strapped to a footstool, now visible in frame. I resumed my previous pose.

"Don't worry if you're not, though," I told the camera impishly. "For the rest of you, before we get into it, you get to see my first time on a Sybian. Boys, grab your cocks. Girls, have some integrity and actually take your panties off, okay? None of that bunched to the side maneuver." I playfully waggled my finger, then picked up the controller for the saddle. "I'm going to cum for you now. I'm going to turn this thing up to maximum and see how long I last. It'll be fun. I hope once _you_ cum you'll stick around, because after I cum I'll be talking about my new project, and I'm excited to share it with you."

I wiggled, rubbing my slick labia over the rubbery nodule at the top of the saddle, grinding against it to tease myself until my loins ached with need. It didn't take long, but I was still probably going to cut it down significantly in the final video. Bracing myself, I took the knob and twisted it all the way to the right.

The saddle roared to life, feeling more like a bomb and an earthquake combined than a simple sex toy. My flesh rippled like water under a jet engine, and it seemed nearly that loud.

At first, I was stunned, feeling neither pleasure nor pain, but then something in my brain clicked. Suddenly, the insane vibrations poured straight into my arousal. I buckled, grabbing my ankles to keep myself from falling. My pussy flooded, wetness audible as it splattered to mist.

An orgasm struck like a meteor. My whole body was as the emptiness of my vagina, clenching down on nothing as the vibrations wrung harsh, violent spasms from my muscles. I think I screamed.

It went on, and on, and on. Lurching pulsations inside me, burning me with raw pleasure.

Eventually, I tipped sideways and flopped to the floor, twitching. Panting, I reached for the control and turned it off with shaking hands. With slow, careful movements, I hauled myself back up onto the saddle, giggling from the rush.

I looked up at the camera. "I think I almost died just now," I joked, "but what a way to go."

I steadied myself, taking deep breaths, and reviewed my notes. "I... that... fuck." I sat up and swept a hand through my hair, feeling sweat slide off my hand without sticking. "Anyway, let's talk _Virgin Therapy!_ "

I got up to get some water. I was set up in Darrek's room, since he was out. Martin was home, but his door was shut. Water in hand, I went to re-adjust the zoom level to keep just my face and boobs in frame, then sat back down on the saddle. I moved carefully, so I dislodged as little sweat as possible. I wanted to look sweaty while I talked, for verisimilitude.

"Hopefully, I'll be launching the site this summer." I paused. "The new site will be branded _Virgin Therapy_ and as you might guess from the name, it will feature sexually inexperienced, sexually _frustrated_ 'patients' coming to my 'office' to get relief." I glanced at my script. "Now, I'm sure your first thought was something like, that's nothing new, that fantasy is so basic it's a cliche, but come on. By now you should expect better of me. As usual, it's not the idea, but the execution, that's important." I smiled knowingly. "You see, I do not plan to hire models to be my patients. My goal for this site, from the beginning, has been to document and illuminate your _authentic_ experiences."

I stood up and went to adjust the zoom again. I scrolled to the next section of my script before returning to my seat and looking into the camera.

"Yes, I said _your_ experiences," I continued, earnest. "Yes, _you_. Not your prettier, more socially confident, or more sexually accomplished fellow subscribers. You." I paused again, softening my expression. "We're all raised and accustomed to treating sexual deprivation as a joke, to scorning the sexual needs of the undesirable and the awkward, to laugh at that pain and refuse all responsibility." I took a breath and let my eyes close for a moment. "That pain, your pain, _is_ real, and sexual deprivation _is_ a genuine hardship. With _Virgin Therapy_ , I want to _show_ that it is, and that it should not be ignored. That is why I will have sex with you, even if no one else will. I will have sex with you _especially_ if no one else will."

I got up to scroll my script, and caught Martin as he shuffled out of his room, looking half asleep. I shot him a smile before I went back to my seat on the inert Sybian.

"So, how will this work?" I said to the camera. "Once the site goes up, it'll be included in your _pornpacific dot io_ subscription. Anyone with a verified, active account will be able to sign up through the _Virgin Therapy_ site. You'll be assigned the next available time and date. You show up at an address to be determined in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I will have on-site, noninvasive health verification. Your session will be private. No crew. Just me, and a pair of camera drones. I _will_ be posting a complete walk-through video, from first click to cumming balls-deep in my pussy—if you have balls—so don't worry."

I glanced to the side. Martin stood in the doorway, watching me with the oddest expression on his face. I quirked an eyebrow at him, but he didn't respond, so I returned my attention to the camera.

"If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please comment," I said. "If you're shaking your head in disgust, well, you do you. But if I've ignited a spark of hope in the darkness of your sex life, good, bring me your desperation, your premature ejaculation, your silent despair." I swallowed and wet my lips with my tongue. "My name is Cameron, and I am your sex object."


	10. EELESIA

_May 23rd, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Nob Hill_

A tightly packed row of cramped, mismatched townhouses stretched down the narrow, sloped street as I emerged from the Crossroads with Jasmine's soul hovering behind me.

Lynette followed me out into the fading light of the evening with her face in her hands. "Noodles. Why."

I grinned at her and giggled.

"I'm never going to be able to look at spaghetti the same way again," Lynette complained. "Never."

I put an arm around her, smiling in gentle amusement as I felt the exasperation, embarrassment, and arousal radiating off her. A darker undercurrent simmered below her playful grousing, which made me worry, but it had a familiar dissonant flavor that I'd learned not to pick at.

"This is all your fault," Lynette went on. "You just had to insist on watching the whole thing. Why did we do that again?"

"It was fun," I explained.

Lynette conked her head on my shoulder. "What I've seen can't be unseen, Li-zi!"

I giggled at her antics and pressed a kiss to her hair. I could feel her mood lightening, despite her protests. I was pretty sure she was only complaining about the porn to distract herself. There'd been a moment when she and Dad had both put a hand between my legs without realizing, and had bumped into each other. I nearly had friction burns on my thighs from how fast they'd both snatched their hands away, but she hadn't said anything about it.

It meant a lot to me, that she was trying, that she hadn't even brought up the possibility of _stopping_. It creeped her out. I didn't need to be an Empathy Mage to know that much. So, it mattered, that she refused to condemn us for it.

Lynette peeked up at me. "What's with the look?"

"I'm just admiring the wonder that is you," I said.

Lynette blushed, and it was so adorable I had to stop and kiss her. She moaned and melted against me. Her smaller body arched to touch as much of me as possible. Our simulated clothes began to fray under the pressure, hints of warm skin bleeding through the illusions of cotton and fleece.

With a reluctant whimper, I broke the kiss and loosened my grip enough for our Styles to reassert themselves. Jasmine's soul loomed pointedly.

"Come on," I said, linking arms with her as we started walking again. "It's this way. We need to head towards Chinatown from here. The _Lewd &Clued_ studio will be on the way."

Lynette made a face, but sighed agreeably. I gave her arm a squeeze.

Ahead, a small black stuffed lion gamboled out of the crevice between two townhouses and planted itself in our path. Its golden eyes fixed on me. I stiffened, tugging Lynette to a stop.

"Oh no," I said.

Lynette saw it and growled. "Shit. Again?"

"They must've been watching the house, when we went back to pack Dad's and my things," I reasoned, turning, searching the street for threats and for somewhere less exposed. There, a fenced driveway. "Come on."

Lynette darted behind the fence and whispered her transformation aria while I stopped and pretended to check my phone, screening her off from the street with my body. Jasmine's soul hung back, and I couldn't tell for sure but it seemed like she was facing the Beacon avatar, pleading with it. It didn't react, or seem to perceive her at all, though.

I scanned our surroundings carefully with my Sight. Three souls moved towards us from the next street over, racing nimbly along the rooftops.

Lynette stood up, in her raiment, and took my hand. My vision went dark as her invisibility spell settled over us, and we ceased to interact with ordinary light. I pointed out our pursuers, and she led us off in a different direction.

I watched the three souls, tense, but they went right by us without slowing down. None of them had the Sight. That was a rare module to have, but I worried it was only a matter of time before this trick would stop working.

Today, at least, we slipped away and avoided a fight.

* * *

 _May 23rd, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment Building_

The building, once we reached it, was unremarkable. Brown brick, five stories, and three windows wide on the side facing the street. In my Sight, the upper floors bloomed with an unusual blending of colors—thin even blues swirled with thick violets mostly layered _kata_ and only a few bits of red and green, also spiking _kata_. A soul shone from within the fourth floor, moving slowly back and forth across a small distance, while Jasmine's soul waited for us by the entrance.

"Oh good," I said. "She's here."

"Jasmine? Or the porn star healer?" Lynette asked.

"Yes," I said, grinning at her.

She huffed and prodded me in my ribs. "Great. Now what?" Lynette asked. "Roof?"

"Sure, the roof. Or we could just ring the bell," I pointed out.

Lynette rolled her eyes at me and led the way inside. The ground floor had a cramped lobby rather than any kind of storefront, with a small freight elevator and a locked stairwell. The call panel blinked on after I prodded it a couple times, and even though the porn studio was supposed to be on the fifth floor, I tapped the name listed for the fourth floor because that's where I could see a soul.

"Yea'llo," a man's voice answered. "Hi there. Do I know you?"

"My name's Eelesia," I said. "Could you tell Cameron that I'd like to speak with her?"

"Eh?" the voice replied. "One sec."

I waited. The soul several floors above me stopped moving briefly. A few seconds later, the stairwell door unlocked. We went up.

When we reached the landing, the door to the apartment was already open. Cameron leaned against the frame, dressed in black with a lot of skin showing, as she swung the door by one arm, gaze distant. She softened with pleased surprise as I hopped up the last step and she caught sight of me.

"Hi, Cameron." I smiled sheepishly and gave her a little wave. "I kinda need a favor."

* * *

"...so now Jasmine is still dead and I feel really bad about that part, so I looked you up and brought her soul here to ask you to resurrect her," I finished in a rush.

Inside the apartment, it was surprisingly nice for an obvious bachelor pad that was home to a pair of pornographers—of the two men, only a surprisingly placid Martin Grey was present, and he'd busied himself in the kitchen to give us privacy. I resisted the urge to ask for his autograph. There was a shiny entertainment center, clean furniture, and the kitchen was kind of messy, but not gross. I wondered how much of that was Cameron's influence.

I'd told her all of it. The incest. The arrest. Snapping in the police station and killing Jasmine. Briefly being a fugitive. Cameron absorbed the story without a single flicker of judgment, and in the face of such acceptance I just kept spilling more and more details. Lynette clung to my side, silently supporting me.

"Alright," Cameron said from her backwards perch on the sofa's backrest. We could see right up her skirt, like that, but she obviously didn't care in the slightest. It became a moot point entirely when she whispered her transformation aria, replacing skirt and panties with the brazen pelvic nudity of her raiment. "Where is her soul? My spell requires touch."

"Um," I said, slightly distracted by both my own aesthetic appreciation and Lynette's vivid and sudden urge to bury her face in Cameron's mouth-wateringly gorgeous vulva. "Right here." I took Cameron's hand and guided her to the center of Jasmine's soul.

Cameron frowned. "I don't feel anything."

I also frowned, moving Cameron's hand around, guiding her to the most tangible areas. "Nothing? Try to cast."

A rush of invigoration washed through me, the spell an elegant fractal weaving across my cells. Oh wait that meant she missed. I let go of Cameron's hand and watched as she tried again, but she only healed herself.

"Damn," Cameron said. "I can't target her. I can't even tell she's there. I'm sorry."

I bit my lip. This wasn't a failure. It was a control deficiency. Not Cameron's fault, but a hard limit of the relevant soul architecture. It wasn't that the spell couldn't affect Jasmine, it was that merely occupying the same triaxial spatial coordinates wasn't true physical contact.

"No, it's okay," I said. "This will still work. We just need a Spirit Mage to give her body image a tangible affect, so you can touch her."

Intrigued, Cameron asked, "Do you know a Spirit Mage?"

" _Do_ we know a Spirit Mage?" Lynette also wondered.

I smiled at her. It felt good when Lynette talked like the two of us were a single unit, intrinsically entangled. The embers of her rekindling love always flared brighter when she did.

"We don't," I admitted, "but I know who does."

* * *

 _May 24th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Towerglass Zeta Nexus_

Lit by a diffuse, sourceless daylight, islands of concrete dotted a vast glass sea, stitched together from the sides of hundreds of skyscrapers. Glass sheets of varying size and tint fit together to form blocky swells, ridges, and valleys. At two of the edges, the sea bent upwards at right angles, continuing on the adjacent sides of the cubic hyperdemiract.

I held Lynette's hand while Cameron followed behind me as we made our way across the glass, radiating worry and impatience.

"Sorry," I said to Cameron. "I really didn't mean to take up your whole day with this. I should've expected your spell to need a bridging medium and arranged something more convenient than this in advance."

"It's not that," Cameron assured me. "I'm glad to help. It's just Martin—you know Martin—"

I nodded quickly as we climbed a series of concrete steps. I certainly remembered meeting one of my favorite porn stars, yesterday, even if I hadn't really talked to him.

"He went out, right after you left," Cameron revealed. "He didn't say a word to anyone, and we haven't heard from him since. He didn't even take his phone with him."

"He's missing?" I asked, spinning around to walk backwards.

"Darrek's trying to find him," Cameron said. "I'm just worried."

"You think he overheard us?" Lynette asked. "And, like..."

Cameron shook her head. "He's veilbound." She paused. "But he's been acting weird all weekend..."

"If he doesn't turn up, I'll help you find him," I offered. "I've had some practice at that kind of thing, recently." I gave Lynette a demonstrative squeeze, making her roll her eyes.

"Thanks," Cameron said, giving me a bit of a smile. "Remind me to give you my number this time."

"Give me your number," I duly reminded her, with a playful grin.

Cameron laughed and rattled it off.

We were on a low fenced platform that jutted out onto the glass from one of the larger concrete islands, like the inverse of an ordinary plaza at the base of an ordinary skyscraper. It was full of fancy circular patio tables, each providing a platter of fruit, cheese, snack-meats, and other finger-foods, all slightly blurred around the edges. Many of the other tables were occupied—mostly by thaumics, some with more visible mutations than others—and the air was full of the dull roar of conversation.

"They're eating," Cameron observed. "Isn't that not real food?"

"It's a reflection of real food, which makes it real enough to be tasty and nourishing," I explained brightly. "The amalgamative process may result in many times more nourishment than is visually apparent, though."

Lynette elbowed me.

"Only eat the blurry stuff, or you might accidentally rupture your stomach." I stopped at an empty table and snatched up a blurry cracker.

"Noted," Cameron said, thoughtful.

I swept the purple tassels of my raiment under me as I settled into a chair at the empty table. Lynette hopped up and slithered down into the chair next to mine. Cameron went around to sit on my other side.

We were all in our raiments, and even here, where everyone knew we were—powerful, dangerous—magical girls just by looking at us, Cameron's raiment caused a lot of staring and rude comments. By surface area, Lynette's raiment showed more skin. In terms of modesty, it was barely more substantial than underwear, but _that_ wasn't unusual in raiments. Unlike Cameron's raiment, which was emphatically _less_ modest than both underwear and complete nudity.

"Hey! You forget yo'mentionables this mornin' or is that for us?" some guy called from the next table over. Late teens, light bluish skin, with a bone-crest instead of hair. He grabbed his crotch. "You can back that fine ass up on this. I got'chur good times right here!"

Cameron froze, hand on her chair, as a boy with golden scales and claws, a boy with transparent skin but ordinary red muscle underneath, and a girl with four arms and eight fingers on each hand, all burst into laughter. A second girl, whose body had the appearance of green jello all the way through, shrank down in her seat, radiating terror and embarrassment.

I felt Cameron's shock, but I did not expect her sudden surge of glee. Planting her hands on the table, Cameron widened her stance, stuck out her naked butt, and looked over her shoulder to call, "Really? Why don't you show me?"

The laughter died.

"Would you say his comment was unnecessarily crass?" Cameron asked me in an excited whisper.

I blinked at her. Deciding to just go with it, I trained my senses on the blue boy and considered the question. "I'm not sure. While the flavor of the comment was motivated by a seed of true lust, the comment itself was a status play meant to signal bravery to his tablemates. Implying a sincere request would make him vulnerable to rejection, which would undermine the ploy."

Cameron looked at me, impressed. "That's way more than I got."

"Empathy Mage," I sing-songed. The blue thaumic boy was still floundering. "I cheat. And wow, you really derailed that."

Cameron grinned and called over her shoulder, "Well? Are you gonna fuck me or not?"

Golden scales shoved blue boy out of his seat. Blue boy stood up... and ran away. His friends watched him go, then scrambled to follow. Cameron hung her head with an air of wry disappointment.

"Aw, damn," she said as she swung herself into her chair. "I scared them off. He could've at least felt me up."

Lynette stared, open-mouthed, at Cameron. "What. The fuck. Was that?!"

"My first catcall," Cameron explained happily. I was pleased to note her humor had softened since the first time I met her. It didn't have that harsh, manic edge I'd noticed while I taught her the basics of being a magical girl.

Lynette's palm smacked into her forehead. "What do you mean, your first—really?"

"I've gotten stares, leers, whistles, and that kind of thing," Cameron said, "but this was a first, yes."

"You don't have to sound so happy about it," Lynette said. "It was gross."

Cameron shrugged. "Dealing with that kind of attention is a price I'm proud to pay, and it's hardly a steep one."

"Oh gods, you were fat weren't you, when you were human?" Lynette guessed, exasperated. "Fat and desperate. That has to be it."

Cameron rolled her eyes. "I wasn't fat, actually. I just had really bad acne. And a penis."

"Well," Lynette said, blinking at that admission, "that, still, same thing."

Cameron quirked an eyebrow. "I think you're _vastly_ underestimating my pride as a slut, Lyn. It isn't about me. It's never been about me. It's about setting an example—living up to an ideal."

"Uh," Lynette said. "Huh. If you say so."

"Say," I spoke up after a short, slightly awkward silence. "I happen to owe Lyn here a hot oil massage, and I really wanna give her the best experience, but I only have two hands, so I pondered to wonder if you'd like put _your_ hands all over my naked girlfrien—"

Lynette's palm slapped over my mouth. "Li-zi!"

I giggled into her hand, and while I was giggling, I caught sight of a very distinctive pair of heads moving towards us between the tables. Right on time.

I waved, pushing Lynette's arm away. "Flurry, Hail, over here!"

Two identical little girls, who could've passed for eight-year-olds, scampered up to our table, holding hands. They both had the same light olive skin, pure white hair, and pale blue eyes, but wore very different raiments. Snowflurry's was a flowing white dress, tight at the waist but billowing and floaty everywhere else. Hailfall's was also white, but resembled some kind of barbarian fighting harness made from leather and stone.

One soul. Two magical girls. It happened sometimes during an ensouling. It was rare, but not as rare as whatever was going on with Cameron—I was without a patron now, and I still didn't have access to my spellshards. The two little girls were each half of the whole personality of the one person they used to both be.

"Gals, this is Winter Cutie Snowflurry and Winter Cutie Hailfall," I introduced, pointing to each of them in turn. "Cuties, this is Shade, and this is Rousing Salve."

"Yo," Hailfall greeted with a casual wave.

"Eternal Solace," Snowflurry acknowledged me.

"Thanks for meeting us," I said.

Snowflurry hopped up into a vacant chair while Hailfall leaned against the table next to her. I glanced at Cameron. She had a wry, deadpan expression on her face, because Lynette had her arm stretched out in front of Cameron's breasts, cloaked in darkness like a living censor bar. I stifled a giggle.

"That info you got for us is worth a few favors on top of what we paid you," Snowflurry said. "We do want you pleased about choosing to go through us."

I smiled. "I hope the info does some good."

A flicker of curiosity from Cameron, but she didn't say anything. I could feel her actively resisting the urge to be annoyed at Lynette. I poked Lynette under the table with my toe. She looked at me, then at the twins, and sheepishly lowered her arm.

"No worries, shadowsprite," Hailfall said with a cute little leer. "We've been around long enough, there isn't much we haven't seen before."

Lynette blushed. Cameron went _snerk_.

"Anyway, we've found a Spirit Mage for you," Snowflurry piped up.

"Already?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. We got a bite as soon as we put the word out," Snowflurry said. "Lucky timing, I guess."

"How much?" I asked.

"For you? We'll set you up for twenty tets," Hailfall added. "Big discount."

I smiled. "Sure. I won't even haggle." I handed over a die. "Who're we meeting, and what are we going to need to trade?"

"She's called Ethereal Magus Black Swan," Snowflurry informed us. "She's down for needing somebody healed, so I believe that works out. She can meet you tonight, in the Neons."

"Cameron?" I asked.

"I left a duplicate with Darrek," Cameron said. "I can see this through even if it takes all night."

"Then that does work out," I told the ice loli twins.

"We'll arrange it." Hailfall pulled out a tablet. "I'll send you the route."

"Thank you," I said brightly.

"Any time, Lace," Hailfall said, pushing away from the table. "Pleasure doing business."

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well," Snowflurry said to Cameron and Lynette. "Do remember us, should you ever find yourselves in need of a middlemaiden."

"Sure," Cameron said.

Snowflurry and Hailfall linked hands and scampered off together. The two of them spoke like the adult they collectively used to be, but they moved like the children they appeared to be. It was an odd contrast.

I turned to Cameron. "We've some time to kill. Do you want to meet my dad?"

"I don't know," Cameron said. "Do I?"

* * *

 _May 24th, 2027_  
_Vega Station, Cytheria_  
_South Terminus Vapor Silos_

Massive cylinders of shiny metal loomed in the dim reaches of Vega Station's lowest and oldest water storage facility. Long-since relegated to ballast, it was usually empty and quiet down here, and the aluminum of the water tanks had distinctive markings, which made them easy to spot from the other side.

I kicked off the vertical surface of a tank and flipped to land lightly on the plexiglas catwalk below.

First Lynette and then Cameron appeared as optical reflections in the metal before the images rotated through themselves, emerging into reality. Lynette bounced from tank to tank, mantle drape fluttering behind her, as she circled down to me. Cameron dropped like a rock. For half a second I worried she'd plow right through the catwalk and send us tumbling into girders below, but one of her hexagonal shields appeared at the last instant to protect the plastic walkway from her landing.

The low thrum of Cameron's shield was loud in the silent gloom. She stood and hopped down the rest of the way to join us, looking around.

"Where are we?" Cameron asked.

I just smiled, and beckoned her to the other end of the catwalk where a large hatch filled the area between two girders. I flipped the bar and hauled it open. Sunlight cut through the darkness, spilling through the gap.

"Gah!" Lynette yelped, while Cameron flinched. "Bright!"

I stepped through, onto a floor of clear plexiglas, as my eyes adjusted. "Sorry. This close to the sun, the threshold of maximal daylight available on Earth can easily be exceeded."

An endless sea of fluffy saffron clouds stretched to the horizon, under a harsh orange sky filled with lighter streamers and puffs, visible through the floor and wall of windows. The sun was high, out of sight, but it lit the yellowish cloud-tops with a brilliant glare.

"We're on Venus," Cameron realized, following me into the airlock.

Lynette shut the hatch behind herself. "Yeah, apparently Cytheria was the best place for her and Kale to start a new life, so now we've gotta go through this rigmarole every time."

"This is a feature, not a bug," I teased. "Venus has been trading with Earth longer than any of the other human worlds by more than a decade, but it's also by far the most magically isolated."

"It probably also helps that they mostly speak English here," Cameron pointed out as she took in the view. Then she looked down, and I felt her swell of awe. "...it's bigger in person."

Even seen from several miles above, the Cloud Forest was vast. The enormous, buoyant Mother Trees could be found all over the planet—obviously the creation of some absurdly powerful Wood Mage, a century in the past—but here, in the slipstream between two storm bands, dozens if not hundreds of Mother Trees interlocked to create as much living space as a small continent.

Small dots of color were scattered over the fronds—inflatable arrays of solar panels, to generate power.

Each tree had a squat, hollow trunk, flanged at both ends. Long, willowy tendrils, more like feathered antennae than leaves or roots, sprouted up from the top and down from the bottom, to sift sulfuric acid out of the atmosphere. Green fronds, like bulbous lilypads, grew out radially from the trunk, varying in size from a large house at the smallest, low down in the shade, to several city blocks at the largest, in the highest ring. Mother Trees naturally synthesized a breathable mix of nitrogen and oxygen to use as a lifting gas in the fronds, which were tuned for human habitation.

"That contributed too," I told Cameron. "There were a lot of reasons that Cytheria was the obvious choice. Earthlike gravity, so Dad wouldn't need extensive gene-modding before he could live here. The natives are diverse, so Dad won't stand out. And it's lower-tech but not _low_ -tech. Dad was a surgical technician, and he lost his job to automation and telepresence, but his skills are still in high demand here. And most importantly, Cytheria is magically isolated because there's very little traditional architecture."

"That's why we came in through Vega Station," Cameron concluded. "That's where we are?"

"Yep," I said as I moved to one of the two outer hatches. "Vega Station is the only artificial structure on the planet big enough and stable enough to be usefully reflected. And getting _into_ the Crossroads from the Cloud Forest is even more difficult, if you aren't me, because you can't just leap out an airlock and fall."

Having done this before, Lynette looped one of her mantle drapes around my waist and tied it off before she took my hand. She had Regeneration, but it wasn't as good as Cameron's healing—she still needed my Environment to breathe.

"I see," Cameron said slowly, peering down through the floor. "...what if we miss?"

"I'll rescue you," I said, smiling. "I can fly if I really need to. It just drains my violet reserves very quickly, so I can't afford to be in the habit."

"It's easier than it looks," Lynette said. "We're already moving with the wind, so there's nothing to blow you off course. Here." She offered Cameron her other mantle drape.

Once Cameron tied it off, I opened the hatch, exposing us to the sky of Venus. A shimmer formed where the two atmospheres met, spilling into the airlock around my legs. The three of us stepped outside, but it didn't feel like anything with my Environment covering us. The air was still, and there weren't any acid clouds close enough to be dangerous. On clear days, ordinary people could make this same jump with just a wing-suit and an oxygen mask.

I shut the hatch behind us, and pulled Lynette and Cameron with me as I toppled into the sky.

As we fell, the sun emerged and Vega Station shrank away. It was a kludge of interconnected habitats, built piecemeal over the past forty years. Tanker platforms full of hydrogen provided extra lift at the top, adjacent to the spaceport's runway. The newer habitats were huge flying-saucer bubbles made of graphene-reinforced meta-materials, while the older habitats were smaller, made of harder but weaker materials, and often had external gas bags to keep them aloft.

I rolled over and looked downward, arrowing my body to pull ahead of Lynette and Cameron. I picked out the correct frond from the rapidly approaching green mosaic of lilypad shapes, and angled towards it, tugging Lynette and Cameron behind me. The green membrane of the frond grew from a lilypad disk to an entire horizon, eclipsing the cloudscape and the rest of the forest as it rushed up at us.

"Hold on!" I called.

I felt a momentary spike of fear from Cameron, varnished in frustration and surprise, but I didn't have time to think about that before we hit. The frond's membrane smacked into me and dimpled downward as I sank into it. Lynette hit next to me, and Cameron hit beside her. The forming funnel shape bounced us into each other and squished us together as the membrane reached its limit and began to rebound.

The three of us were tossed back up into the air for a few seconds as a wide, rippling wave rolled outward from us across the top of the frond. Finally we settled down in a much shallower depression formed by our weight, me on my back with Lynette across my middle and Cameron using her butt as a backrest.

"Okay," Cameron said. "That was fun." She pushed herself up onto her knees. "How do we get in?"

My reply was to pull my holdout knife out of my Pocket. "Like this." I rolled over and stabbed down, cutting a long slit in the membrane. It was only about three inches thick, but it took most of my strength to get the knife to move. I put my knife away and grabbed the sides of the cut, wrenching it open. A light breeze hit me in the face. "Go on. It heals really fast if you don't hold it open."

Lynette tugged her mantle drapes free of our waists and dove through first. Cameron followed her, and then I slipped through, dropping into freefall inside the frond.

* * *

 _May 24th, 2027_  
_Upper Konassil, Cytheria_  
_Luralar Frond_

Cameron looked down at herself with a skeptical expression. "Why do I look like a hula girl?"

We stood on the loamy shores of a beautiful crystal-clear lagoon, shaded by palm trees under a speckled green sky. The water glowed from within, a natural bioluminescent moss accented by cleverly disguised LED strips. Groups of swimmers frolicked in the lagoon, or milled around the wooden boardwalk that curved along the opposite shore, dressed in light, gauzy fabrics, minimal swimwear, or nothing at all.

After splashing down, dismissing our raiments, and swimming to shore, we'd blended right in, three beautiful girls climbing nude from the water.

Lynette and I were already familiar with adaptations our Styles made for the local culture. She wore a blue flower-print bikini under an airy, slanted half-skirt, and I had a tight-bodied, silken sundress that swished around my knees. It was a new experience for Cameron, though. As soon as she'd put on her Style, Cameron's vaguely gothic slutwear had blurred out and reformed into a flower wreath that hung from her neck to obscure her breasts—which were way too big to be obscured that way—a rather anemic grass skirt, and nothing else.

"Not what you were expecting?" Lynette teased.

"Seriously," Cameron said, inspecting herself. "Why."

I giggled. "It's..." I paused. "Do you want a real answer to that question?"

Cameron looked up. "You know what, sure. I'm curious."

I explained while we walked. The lagoon was a natural pool set at the center of the frond's base, surrounded by parks and cultivated gardens. Most of the population lived out at the walls of the frond, where natural, fibrous shelves hundreds of feet deep provided the foundation for a dozen layers of residences, offices, and markets.

"In America, the goth aesthetic is generally associated with the countercultural acceptance of lifestyles that reject mainstream religious morals," I said as we left the lagoon behind. "There's always nuance, but the key concept I think you care about is both _acceptance of the outcast_ and _being unbound by the precepts of propriety_."

I glanced over at Cameron, and she nodded, waiting for me to continue.

"Did you know that the founding non-terrestrial populations were all carefully selected genetic outliers?" I asked. "The Jovians do not get cancer. The Titanians have exceptional tolerance for smog and smoke inhalation. Both populations started with the smallest possible sensitivity to low-gravity atrophy, even before they were modified. Then there's the Martians, who can tolerate thin air better than anyone."

Cameron looked at me expectantly.

"The first Venusians were selected for low fertility," I explained. "They had a larger starting population and less space to expand into, so yeah. After a century of development, and the introduction of birth control from Earth..."

"The edgy counterculture kids are the ones _trying_ to get pregnant," Lynette added helpfully, repeating the same thing I'd told her.

"Okay," Cameron said neutrally.

"So," I concluded, "the aesthetic of sexy, natural, and _too primitive for birth control_ reads the same way in Cytheria that nocturnal and vaguely pagan reads in America."

"Oh," Cameron said, nodding. "Well, now I know."

Eventually, we reached the base of the rim wall, and took an open-topped gondola up to the seventh shelf, where Dad lived. It was a surprisingly modern town, given the verticality and the complete absence of concrete. Natural formations in the sturdy plant matter served as buildings, with the occasional wooden wall added on. Some of the larger structures had petalsilk siding, or walls plated in amber. The streets were paved with amber sheets, and while there weren't any cars, there was the occasional bicycle or pedicab. Vines with mirror leaves grew along the bottom of the shelf above, shining like green stars in a twilight sky.

The small cabin I'd bought for Dad was a little out of the way, but it had all the amenities and it wasn't that far from the medical campus he'd picked out. The only downside was the internet. The local version barely qualified for the name, and Earth's internet only got mirrored here once a week, and only when Earth wasn't behind the sun.

I slipped a key out of my Pocket and let myself in, Lynette and Cameron trailing behind me.

"Dad, we're back," I chirped.

Dad looked up from the amber-topped kitchen table, where he had piles of paper forms in neat stacks. He was dressed in respectable local fashion for a skilled professional—a white silk vest over a bare chest, with light, full-length pants in a solid maroon color. I preened a little as his eyes lingered on me, before sliding over Lynette, whom he offered a weak smile, to land on Cameron.

I smiled inwardly. It was cute when Dad made that face. He stood up and cleared his throat, offering Cameron a handshake. I opened my Sight, and as I suspected, Jasmine's soul loomed in front of my face, bobbing expectantly.

"Welcome," Dad said. "You, uh, thank you for helping Eelesia."

"I'm glad to," Cameron said. She studied Dad with a slight tilt of her head as she slowly and deliberately clasped hands with him. "Nice to meet you, Kale."

"We were successful," I reported to Jasmine. "We're meeting a Spirit Mage tonight."

"Right!" Lynette put in. She grabbed my arm and towed me over to one of the hammock-chairs that served as a sofa. "It's all set up, and we've got some hours to kill until then."

Dad looked over as Cameron released his hand. "Oh? That's good." He put on his dad-face. "Are any of you girls hungry? We've got, fruit, and more fruit."

As I let Lynette push me down onto the hammock-chair, I smiled at him and shook my head. "We ate in the Towerglass Nexus. We're fine."

Lynette arranged herself on my lap, tucking her head into the crook of my neck. I held her, and her compact body was warm in my arms, her skin soft under my hands as I caressed her. She snuggled into me with a sigh, and closed her eyes.

"Okay," Dad said, watching us cuddle with approval and a little wistfulness. He gave Cameron a polite smile. "Please, make yourself at home."

An amused Cameron took that as an invitation to deactivate her Style, because of course she did. Her flower wreath and grass skirt evaporated. Dad inhaled sharply at the suddenly nude Cameron, but it wasn't like she hadn't been effectively naked already. With a hand on his chest, Cameron brushed by, grazing his bare arm with her bare breast on her way to the hammock-chair across from me.

I giggled. "Are you trying to seduce my dad, Cameron?"

Cameron stopped and blinked at me, innocently curious. "Didn't you want me to?" she asked, projecting an unspoken, _Isn't that why we're here?_

"Excuse me?" Dad sputtered, doing a double-take.

I opened my mouth, then closed it again, because now that she mentioned it, I _did_. A quiet sense of failure and inadequacy weighed on Dad's mind. I could feel it when he touched me, read it in the tremble of his limbs when he held me. A different man might have grown to resent me for that, but Dad loved me too much to ever let a feeling like that take root. However, it was still true that I couldn't comfort him as effectively as I usually did, because it only reminded him how much he depended on me for all of his intimate needs.

It seemed like Dad might stop feeling so morose about having sex with me if he wasn't having sex with _only_ me. He did relax a lot after I came out to my school as polyamorous, and started dating.

"That's not necessary," Dad assured Cameron, slightly shrill.

"Few things are," Cameron said, looking over her shoulder at him. "But we do those things anyway, for truer reasons than necessity."

Dad hesitated and looked over at me. "Eelesia?"

"Just come over here and sit with us," I suggested. "There's something I wanted to talk to Cameron about anyway, so you can just cuddle her while I do that."

Lynette twitched violently, eyes flying open, but she merely grunted and nuzzled into my neck again without acknowledging it. I stroked her hair, but otherwise didn't react. I worried a little, when Lynette did this, but even if her bond with the Horror made it impossible for her to sleep, she enjoyed pretending when we had downtime together.

I glanced around at the other three people in the room. My girlfriend and lover, on my lap. My dad, who I was also routinely naked around. And Cameron, who was, well, Cameron, and already naked herself. I let my Style lapse. My sundress evaporated, baring my skin to Lynette's touch. She shivered happily and snuggled me tighter.

Cameron sat down across from me and smirked. "If you're angling for an orgy, you could just say so."

Lynette snorted against my skin, and I said, "Dad and Lyn aren't interested in each other sexually, so, no. Sorry."

"Quite," Dad sighed, and gave in to our expectant gazes. He sat next to Cameron, and she leaned into him, taking his hand and placing it firmly on her thigh as she pressed her boob into his shoulder.

"What was your something?" Cameron asked me.

"I lost my patron weeks ago," I said, "but I can't modify my spells or create new ones. I wanted to watch you do it to see if I can determine why."

"Wait, you're just, stuck?" Cameron asked.

I nodded. "I have five spells. I can do almost anything with combinations of those five spells and enough veilform energy, if I get creative, but, yes. I asked around, and that's normally what happens to unclaimed magical girls."

Cameron frowned. "A little while ago, a Puchuu told me I was unclaimed. It called me a 'lost soul'. But, my spellshards were the _first_ thing I gained, and you're telling me I shouldn't have access to them at all?"

"I'm only beginning to understand just how ignorant the Beacon strove to keep me, but, did the Puchuu try to claim you?" I asked.

"No," Cameron said slowly.

"It would've, if you were really just unclaimed. I think it lied," I said. "Your ability to design your own spells is even rarer than I knew. Something weirder than not having a patron is going on here."

"Alright," Cameron said, and closed her eyes.

I watched, shutting my physical eyes to shut out distractions. A shadow of Cameron's brain hung within the luminous shape of her soul, with traceries implying the shape of her body. I strained, picking out fine details I usually didn't have time to see clearly, watching the interplay between the parts of her soul.

Lynette and Jasmine both had patron bonds. Their souls were each structured differently, and I couldn't really look at my own soul, but identifying the mana nexus in each of them wasn't difficult.

I didn't know what I was looking for, but I knew _where_ to look, so I just watched for motion, for activity. There. A sixfold structure adjacent to a node that flickered out surges of energy across the entire soul. It extended outward in an unnamed direction but looped back on itself, feeding through, feeding _on_ , the linchpin of the whole structure—my eyes flew open and I gasped.

"What?" Cameron asked, snapping out of her trance. "What did you see?"

"You're _not_ unclaimed," I said, reeling. "You're... somehow, you are your own patron."

Lynette bolted upright in my lap to look at me. "What?! You can do that? Can I do that?" Then she flinched, and glanced around like she was afraid eldritch tentacles would start bleeding out of the walls. "I mean, hypothetically."

I didn't see any extradimensional shadows. "I don't know if I could replicate the effect—I have no idea how it happened at all—but it wouldn't be a good idea. Cameron, your soul is, eating itself, eroding your mana capacity."

Cameron sat up, alarmed, jostling Dad, who was doing his best to follow the conversation. "Are you sure? But, I don't think I have less mana than I started with..."

"It's happening very slowly," I told her as Lynette settled back into the crook of my neck with a sigh. "Sorry, I should've said that first. You've got at least a decade, maybe two."

"...can you break a patron bond?" Cameron asked.

"In theory?" I hedged. "It would be a lot more delicate and dangerous than installing a module. The bond is central to the whole structure. You might be able to break it yourself, from the patron end. That might be better. You could end up sealed if I messed up a sorcerous solution even slightly. I'd need to study this."

"Right. Okay." Cameron sighed. "What does 'sealed' mean, anyway?" Cameron asked, settling down and snuggling up to Dad again. "I keep hearing people say it like everyone knows what it means..."

I blushed. "Sorry. It means—the part of your soul that's _you_ , it's called a ravel. If your ravel gets damaged, or separated from your mana nexus, you die. For real. Sealing is the act of erasing a magical girl's mind and identity without damaging the soul. Because damaging a soul is much harder to do and actually much less reliable."

"I see," Cameron said, thoughtful. She leaned her head on Dad's shoulder and absently placed his hand back on her thigh. "Well, that's grim. Can you at least tell me if I have any mods besides the basic three and Duplicate?"

"Can you use Duplicate?" I suggested.

Cameron shrugged and reached out with one foot. A second identical nude Cameron appeared on the floor toe to toe with the real Cameron. I watched her soul as it happened, tracing the active pathways, and there _was_ an extra conduit there.

"Yeah, you do have something else," I said. "It looks physically anchored in your raiment. I think you have to be transformed to use it, but it's small, not one of the mana-intensive mods."

"Oh really? Thank you," both Cameron's chorused. "You just saved me a lot of dice."

I perked up and smiled at her.

"There's two of you?" Dad asked faintly.

"Why?" the Cameron on the floor asked wryly. She lifted her legs and spread them into splits, curling her hips to lift her vulvic region up like an offering. "Did you want three?"

"Um, no, thank you," Dad said, glancing sharply at the real Cameron and squirming as she rubbed his nascent erection through the soft silk of his pants. "One of you is fine."

Cameron studied his face for a moment before nodding. She moved away from him while the copy of Cameron on the floor kicked upwards, flipping herself onto her feet in a casual display of agility. The copy grabbed Dad's vest and easily lifted him to his feet. Dad yelped quietly, catching himself on Cameron's shoulders.

I giggled softly and slipped one hand under Lynette's bikini top, the illusion breaking down around my knuckles as I fondled her. Lynette nuzzled me, rubbing herself on my skin, and ignored what Cameron and Dad were doing.

Despite the manhandling, Cameron pouted demurely up at Dad like their embrace was a spontaneous romantic happenstance. I watched her work with a sense of fascination, as she drew him into a kiss and made it seem like his idea. I felt the deliberate intensity with which she concentrated on him, navigating his every nuance like he was the most interesting puzzle in the world, to become the lover he needed.

It was an affectation, but it wasn't a lie. It was like Cameron had every possible variety of desire and affection inside her all the time, waiting for her to call upon the ones she needed. It would've been disturbing, if it wasn't so beautiful.

Dad hissed, surprised, into the kiss as the real Cameron reached out from her seat and sneakily pulled his pants down. Dad's cock sprang free unexpectedly and slapped flush against her copy's wet cleft. The copy held onto him while the real Cameron lifted each of his feet and pulled his pants all the way off, then rose and pulled his vest down his arms.

Cameron sat down with Dad's clothes as her copy finally let the kiss end. "You can have one of me all to yourself, today," she murmured lightly. "Take me to bed and ravish me, Kale."

Dad nodded and pushed her towards the door to his room, keeping a hand on the small of her back as he followed her in. The door swung shut but didn't latch.

"So," the real Cameron said innocently. "Want to help me figure out my last mod, or do you need help with that oil massage after all?"

Lynette conked her head on my collarbone. "Godsdamnit, Li-zi."

"I'll take that as a no."

* * *

 _May 24th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Neon Theta Cluster_

Hand in hand with Lynette, I sailed down the channel between cubic blocks of cityscape, weightless. A warm orange glow deepened beyond the colors of a sunset as we traveled, suffusing our view as the scenery around us grew more and more foreign. Straight lines converged to a point in the far distance, dark metal and icy stone lit in clashing hues by broken signs and chaotic patchwork screens.

Lynette and I glowed with a faint violet aura. The air slipped over us, providing no resistance while I dipped into my reserve of fear and used my Radiant Hand spell to imbue us both with the accelerative anti-friction effects of negative violet-band energy. It wasn't flight. That required several layered spells and drained my reserves far more quickly, but it let us move relatively quickly in a straight line through the null gravity between blocks.

"Haa!" Cameron shouted as she launched off an incline and flipped out into the null gravity zone in front of us, exceeding our speed for a moment before air drag pulled her towards and then behind us. She landed on the block opposite the one she launched from and quickly caught up again. Her legs propelled her forward with long, powerful strokes as her raiment's boots glided along the pavement on trails of prismatic light.

"I still can't believe she has hover skates," Lynette said. "That's just so random."

I giggled as I pulled out my phone to check our route. We were close to the final landmark. "I think it suits her." I put my phone away. "Cameron!"

Cameron spun around and skated backwards without losing speed. "Yeah?"

I released my spell and let the air slow us down. "Next turn! The submerged block!"

Cameron skated up a path of hexagonal shields which snapped into place in front of her at the speed of thought as she arced into the intersection. All the corners met at right angles, and it looked like there were only six directions, but if you stopped and counted, each intersection actually had _twelve_ cardinal directions, all at seeming right angles to each other. Six led between the exteriors of the adjacent cubic geometries, and the other six led between the interiors, each simultaneously visible and accessible, like one of those impossible geometry drawings made real.

I landed against Cameron's shield beside Lynette, and floated as I looked around. "It's that way."

I pointed into the canyon between two blocks. One was entirely covered by gently rippling water. Blurry lights moved within, allowing glimpses of what looked like ceramic huts and coral masonry. The other was a cramped amalgamation of steel, aluminum, and dark ice, lit sporadically by a riot of vivid colors. One light within the submerged block darted close to the surface, revealing the translucent bivalve body and six sinuous limbs of an acugon.

We were pretty far away from largest hubs of earthling activity, but this place teemed. Humans with thaumic mutations hurried through narrow streets under a sky of water, while scattered unearthly flying creatures that must've been acugons with thaumic mutations flitted about.

"There." I pointed. "That green sign with the bisected _Joviengo_ lettering."

"Jovy-what lettering?" Lynette asked, scrunching her face up.

"The Jovian trade language," Cameron said, cutting me off. I pouted at her. "It's like, a fusion of German and Japanese with grammar invented by bilingual but definitely not trilingual Hebrew-speakers. Right?"

"That is not an inaccurate summary of the history of the language," I agreed, nodding sagely. I opened my Sight for a moment to make sure Jasmine was still with us, and kicked off Cameron's shield. "Come on."

A coherent gravity caught me as I descended, and I twirled to land on my feet in a flare of tassels. A man with webbed hands and white scales on his bald head stopped, turned around, and walked casually in the opposite direction. I smiled sheepishly at his back as Cameron and then Lynette thumped down next to me.

"Whoa, the gravity here is so light," Cameron observed, bouncing in place a little.

"It's lighter on Titan," Lynette told her.

"The thicker air lies to your sense of weight," I chimed in. "This is probably a blend of the Jovian moons, which average about the same gravity as Titan, around twelve percent of Earth's."

"Whatever," Lynette said, poking my side. "I knew that..."

As we made our way towards the sign, Cameron's raiment drew looks, but no more than mine or Lynette's did. It was cold enough that most of the people who shuffled out of our path were dressed head-to-toe, but as often as not the jackets were like clear plastic, the pants, skirts, leggings, and shirts were of various cloudy but mostly transparent fabrics, and any opaque under-layers were skintight. Cameron still stood out, but not to an obscene degree like she did elsewhere.

A mousy blonde magical girl in a frilly golden raiment with elaborate blood-red lace and a puffy hoop skirt waved to us from a cyan-lit alcove beneath the blazing green sign. "Hello! Are you the healers?"

Lynette took a step back and made a, _don't look at me, that's their job,_ gesture.

"Yes," Cameron said, taking the lead. "I'm Rousing Salve."

"I'm Subtle Maiden Hypnotic Dream. Welcome," the golden magical girl said, blinking bemusedly once she got a good look at Cameron. "Um, we're set up just through here. Come in."

Inside, the walls were plastic and all the furniture had the look of something printed rather than assembled. A large, muscular man with a rich tan lay shirtless on a low table, bandages wrapped around the stump of his missing right leg. He was being tended to by a statuesque magical girl with curly dark-red hair, clad in a skintight black body-stocking with armor in the form of clear glass bead-scales over her vital areas, and a skirt formed by countless red leather belts spiraling down her legs to create a hem of buckles at her knees. An animated doll rode on her shoulder, stained with blood.

Ethereal Magus Black Swan looked up and assessed us with a tightly controlled calm. "You're punctual. And you're eager," she said to a spot in the air right in front of her. "Yes, I can. I'm sure they will. No. Now hold still."

I opened my Sight and glimpsed Jasmine's soul bobbing practically on top of Black Swan. I watched as the embodied magical girl touched the insubstantial one, and a nude girlish figure bloomed into existence.

With an ethereal body formed from a shimmery mist that rippled like heat haze, Jasmine gasped and poked at her own arm. "I can feel! I can talk!"

"You can't really feel," Black Swan corrected calmly. "I've given you awareness of pressure through your proprioception, but I can't replicate your sense of touch without a hallow, and that would be a pointless waste if this does indeed allow your friend there to heal you back to life."

"She's not my friend," Jasmine said sourly. "She's a skanky weirdo slut, and I _thought_ Lace was my friend but then she _strangled me to death_ so she could keep fucking her dad!"

That got a raised eyebrow from Black Swan, and a deadpan eyeroll from Cameron. I sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm doing my best to fix it."

"I supposed you are," Jasmine admitted, folding her arms under her breasts. She glanced down at herself and snapped her arms up to _cover_ her breasts with a yelp. "I'm naked! Stop looking!"

"Oh please, no one cares," Black Swan said disdainfully.

With another eyeroll, Cameron reached for Jasmine. "Can I just..."

Black Swan snapped a hand out and made a fist. Jasmine eep'd as she slid backwards across the room, away from Cameron.

Cameron stopped and gave the taller magical girl a questioning look, while the blood-soaked doll floated off its perch and drifted in a circle around Jasmine's head with a scrutinizing air. I glanced around when I realized I'd lost track of Hypnotic Dream, but she must've stepped out a while ago because I didn't see her or her soul, though not seeing her soul didn't mean much in the Crossroads.

"I want you to heal Jules first," Black Swan said, indicating the muscle-bound man on the plastic table, who grunted in response.

With a shrug, Cameron went over to him. He blinked up at her, and his pale, sweaty face brightened as he managed to leer at her through the pain. Cameron, of course, reveled in the attention.

"This is going to hurt," Cameron explained. "But it'll be quick." She picked up his hand. "Here." She placed his hand on her bare butt. "Focus on this."

The man, Jules, snorted and gave her a squeeze. Cameron put her hand on his chest. For a few moments she just let him feel her, before he suddenly hissed in pain. As she healed him, a sudden sense of suspicion swelled up within her, putting me on edge.

"Didn't you put out your request for a healer, yesterday?" Cameron asked Black Swan.

"Obviously." Black Swan's calm slipped. Now I was very on edge, with a growing sense of dread. I brushed Lynette's hand, and wished I'd thought to arrange some kind of signal for situations like this.

Cameron finished, plucking the torn bandage off Jules' regrown leg. "It's just, this wound was only an hour old, so..."

Black Swan idly circled around us. "Oh that. You see, it's actually a funny story. An associate of mine recently, well, Dream?"

Hypnotic Dream came back into the room... with Martin Grey beside her. An explosion of shock from Cameron painted the ensuing silence.

"Is that her?" Black Swan asked Martin Grey, pointing at Cameron.

"Yes," Martin Grey replied tonelessly.

"Good," Black Swan said, and then everyone moved at once.

Etheric straps sprouted out of Jasmine's ghostly skin, binding her tight and sticking her to the ceiling. Lynette vanished from sight. Cameron lunged for Jules, who rolled backwards, throwing himself from the table. Black Swan's belt-skirt unfurled, coming alive.

" _Brilliant Mer—_ "

Stars burst across my vision as a fist crashed into the back of my head with enough force to topple an elephant. I flew face-first into a stack of chairs, crashed through them, and slammed hard into the wall, cracking it.

Struggling to breathe, vision swimming, I looked up and saw Lynette standing over me. Flooding myself with blue sorrow, my skin burst alight and my head cleared. I twisted away as Lynette's fist came down and cracked the floor instead of my head. A slap to the floor threw me upwards, instinct and reflex guiding me as my mind reeled at Lynette's attack.

I kicked off the wall and flipped to land behind her, and I saw the hilt of a dagger sticking out of the back of her skull. Rage burned away my confusion, and I spun to lock eyes with Hypnotic Dream.

Between us, Black Swan had her limbs wrapped in her prehensile belts, while the remainder whirled, a storm of metal striking at Cameron. The lewd magical girl moved like lightning, ducking, weaving, and casting shields so fast it didn't matter that the shields were immobile as they danced back and forth across the room.

Lynette's fist whiffed by my ear as I tilted my head to the side. I caught her arm and twisted, bringing her down into my rising knee. My girlfriend's face crumpled in a spray of blood. I grabbed Hypnotic Dream's athame and ripped it out of Lynette's head, leaving her body to crumple, lifeless, to the floor. I did all of this without taking my eyes off of Hypnotic Dream.

Hypnotic Dream stumbled back, and called out, " _Splinter Daze!_ "

The athame vanished from my hand and reappeared in hers. That was fine. I wasn't going to give her a chance to use it. Drawing on my reserve of awe, I imbued myself with Radiant Hand and lit up a brilliant green. _Strength._ I leaped, planted my hands on the ceiling, and threw myself down towards the Psychic Mage.

The large man, Jules, came up with a pair of swords, blades glowing prismatic. I diverted my kick to deflect his strike, trusting my raiment's invulnerability. His blade sheared through my shoe, my foot, and half my leg.

I crashed down in a heap, awe-glow extinguished as I groped for healing and a helpless shriek of pain tore out of my throat. Above me, one of Jules' swords crumbled to dust, and a lucid corner of my mind noted: a weapon that can cut through raiments, but good for only one strike.

And he had two.

He held the second over my neck as he dropped, driving his knee into my sternum to stun me. His fist pounded into my face, again, and again, and again. The blows felt soft. He didn't have supernatural strength. But I couldn't avoid them with that sword at my neck and the constant jolts to my head added up, and were making me dizzy enough to throw up.

"Emer—urhg— _Emerald Bl_ —fuck!" Cameron cried out as belts struck like snakes at her exposed nether regions. She healed faster than the damage could accumulate, but every time she missed one, she faltered, letting more through her defense. Black Swan kept her at bay.

"Stop!" someone shouted. The punching stopped. Or maybe that was a coincidence.

My flesh slowly began to knit back together in an aura of blue, but Jules still had that sword poised to decapitate me, so I didn't dare more than that. Cameron threw up a large shield, kicked a chair into the air, then dropped the shield to hurl the chair at Black Swan. Her animated belts cut it to shreds before it got near her.

A gunshot cracked through the battle. "I said stop!"

Cameron glanced over, and froze. Martin Grey stood by, holding a gun to his own head. Black Swan didn't stop. Her belts struck at Cameron's face, dazing her, before wrapping tight around her body as she struggled.

"Surrender now, or I'll pull the trigger!" Martin Grey shouted.

Cameron froze again, and Black Swan finished binding her. A belt clapped tight over Cameron's mouth, and she hung there, captured. Martin Grey smiled nastily.

"Jill," Black Swan said, breathing hard. "Revert her and put her out."

"Yes, Patricia-senpai," Hypnotic Dream replied.

She darted over and touched Cameron's head. Cameron's eyes rolled up and she twitched for a few seconds before relaxing. Her raiment folded into itself until it was gone. Naked, Cameron sagged into unconsciousness and went limp. I tested my leg, but as soon as I moved, Jules' sword advanced threateningly. He hadn't taken his eyes off me.

"What do you want me to do with this one?" Jules asked.

"For now, watch her," Black Swan said. "Dream, you too. Let her heal enough that she doesn't bleed out, but don't let her move."

"Do you want me to put her to sleep?" Hypnotic Dream asked.

"Can you?" Black Swan asked. "She's an Empathy Mage. I know you have trouble with those."

"I..." Hypnotic Dream hesitated.

"Let's not put it to the test," Black Swan said. "Just watch her." She reached out, and the blood-soaked doll landed on her hand. "Go get Vreth. Tell him we're done."

The doll nodded its floppy head and flew off. I could feel my toes again, but I wasn't completely healed and I whimpered at the remaining pain because I was completely out of sorrow. At least I was pretty sure I was healed enough to walk, at least in such weak gravity.

Martin Grey lowered the gun. He went over to pick Cameron up, but Black Swan stopped him, snagging his arm with a belt.

"I'm sorry, but our mutual employer takes precedence, here," Black Swan said. "Access to this one will be provided on his terms only."

Martin Grey stared at her for a long moment, expressionless, then nodded and backed away. I couldn't sense anything from him. It was like all his emotions had been dulled to nothing. Something was wrong with him. Something more than mind-control.

A cloaked figure entered the room, followed by Black Swan's possessed doll. I opened my Sight, and saw... indecipherable mana traceries through chaotic organic shapes. Not a fey, then. Not a magical girl either. Something more, and less, something eternal, and transient. There was nothing in it but noise, and noise, and noise. I flinched away, closing my Sight and pulling my other magical senses away from it.

"Vreth'kahn," Black Swan greeted with surprising warmth. "As promised, the magical girl responsible for Olandra's failure, and those with her."

"Hhh, impressive," it replied in a resonant whisper, a low-pitched, rumbling hiss. "Four new vessels, one without flesh, soon to be two. Hhh."

It crouched down over Lynette, and a purple-skinned hand emerged from the cloak. It touched Lynette's skin, and snatched its hand back with a hiss. "This one is marked. This one is of the—" it spoke a name with no syllables. "We cannot use her."

I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief that Lynette's Horror was good for something. _This creature must be the spawn of a Horror, itself._

"Oh," Black Swan said. "Well that's a shame."

The creature called Vreth loomed over me, and within its hood I glimpsed something that resembled an octopus. Its surprisingly human purple hand reached out and touched my sore face. "Hhh, acceptable. We will take this one."

Saying nothing more about me, Vreth pointed up at Jasmine's bound, ethereal form. The ghostly girl squirmed, wide-eyed, as Black Swan brought her down and presented her to Vreth. The creature touched her, and snatched his hand away with an even more violent hiss.

"You bring me this?!" Vreth hissed. "The fleshless one carries the taint of the anathema! Hhh! Destroy it! Destroy this taint."

"Mmmph!" Jasmine's eyes bugged out and she struggled mightily, but there wasn't anything she could do when her temporary body was made of Black Swan's magic.

"How ironic," Black Swan said, shaking her head. "Very well."

I watched with a sense of detached horror as Black Swan produced a glass disk. She held it out, and a sorcery array sketched itself out of etheric mist in the air off the glass disc's edges. A central circle expanded to encompass Jasmine, who thrashed and sobbed in her bonds.

"Oum, Phi," Black Swan pronounced, and the diagram of etheric mist lit up, a prismatic aurora blazing so bright it hurt to look at. Her next words echoed, more than sound, like a transformation aria. "Radical Maiden Lyrical Sniper. Servant of the Beacon. Unravel."

Reality screamed, but only Hypnotic Dream and I seemed to hear. Black Swan shoved the glass disk into Jasmine's chest. It shattered, and an instant later, so did Jasmine.

Jagged shards of fabric and fastenings burst from Jasmine's misty body, spiking outward. Pieces and slivers of her raiment, repeated over and over, formed an endless nested fractal that ground against itself as it grew. The silent scream abruptly cut off as the spiky fractal stilled. In the next instant, it exploded outward, filling half the room with endless repetitions of every piece of Jasmine's raiment in an infinitely complex fractal cloud.

Then it crumbled, dissolving into prismatic motes.

I let out a choked whimper of dismay. After everything I'd been through, after everything _she'd_ been through. I'd brought her to this end. I'd messed up so badly. What was I going to do now?

"And the marked one?" Black Swan asked.

"Hhh," Vreth said. "No witnesses. Destroy the body. Bind her soul and bring it with us."

"Yes," Black Swan mused. "I could make use of her like that."

My heart lurched. No! I needed to buy more time for Lynette to regenerate! Even a head wound wouldn't keep her down long. I just had to think of some way to—

Animated belts sprouted out of the _floor_ around Lynette's unresponsive body, grew metallic barbs, and began to saw through her flesh. At the same time, Black Swan produced a wooden figurine, a carved rendering of a ten inch woman wrapped tight in bondage.

With my Sight, I could see the way Lynette's soul tore away from her body piece by piece, and collapsed in on itself around the wooden figurine. A keening wail of anguish leaked through my lips. There had to be something I could—

Hypnotic Dream turned away from the grizzly dismemberment, and from her I felt a flicker of strangled guilt. I latched onto that guilt with everything I had, and let it feed into my desperation. She flinched and snapped her eyes onto me, feeling caught out, then wary. I stared her down, picturing the moment I'd killed Jasmine—smearing together the original murder which was also entirely my fault, and the true death that I'd led her into—and the sight of Lynette ripping apart, filling my mind with the injustice of it.

A trio of possessed dolls, none of which were covered in blood, swooped down and gently picked me up. I ignored them. The room around us began to warp and change. I ignored that too.

Hypnotic Dream started to shake. She pointed her athame at me and I felt a weight slam down on my thoughts, shoving my mind in a different direction, but I could feel her anxiety as an image of hands covered in blood slipped through. Yes, it was on her. This was where her choices had led her, but—I was strong enough to do anything Patricia-senpai ordered me to do. I threw _that_ feeling at the defeated Empathy Mage, but she wasn't there anymore. It was only me—only me—only me—only me—only me—only me—only—

* * *

 _May 24th, 2027_  
_Gomul Catena, Callisto_  
_Tsutan Hydroponic Arcology_

"Jill!" cried a magical girl's voice.

The pain that stabbed through my head was worse than all my injuries combined, but as I forced my eyes to focus, I saw Hypnotic Dream fall over, twitching as she made a pathetic choking noise. Much more importantly, Jules took his eyes off of me.

Surging up with a panicked desperation, drawing on my reserve of awe to strengthen myself, I knocked his sword-hand away from me and fired a red Impact Bolt directly into his chest.

His ribcage exploded out through the back of his torso, showering me with blood and chunky organ bits, but I didn't have time to think about that. I snapped my hand out, and screamed, " _Brilliant Mercy!_ "

Blazing red with corrosive defiance, my staff cleaved through the dolls holding my feet. I whirled, throwing the last doll off of me as I planted my feet, braced my staff, and took in my surroundings.

Black Swan in a fighting stance, holding a wooden figurine, belts lashing around her. Cameron, nude and unconscious, carried by floating dolls. Vreth, backing away. Hypnotic Dream, seizing on the ground. No sign of Martin Grey.

A canyon, green and lush within a warm golden illumination. We stood on a wide concrete balcony that extended all the way across the canyon, filled with inert robotic equipment of some kind. Far, far above, where the canyon narrowed to a slit, I could see stars on black and a slice of Jupiter.

"Go!" Black Swan said to Vreth as the remaining dolls swooped down and picked up Hypnotic Dream. "Take Jill. My dolls will obey you until I return."

Vreth turned and ran, leading the dolls and their cargo. I moved, and I held nothing back, prepared to spend every last bit of my reserves to win this fight. This was the best chance I'd get.

I threw myself to the side, blazing green, to dart around my enemy's Tentacle radius. That combat module let her grow those prehensile belts from any surface, but it took exponentially more mana and concentration than merely animating the instantiations on her raiment. I expected her to get in my way, block me and keep me from going after Vreth.

Black Swan didn't chase me as I rapidly gained on the cloaked creature and the unconscious Cameron. She merely held up the Lyn-figurine and smirked, turning as translucent red streamer-wings materialized from her back.

My insides went cold. I slid to a stop, looking back and forth between Cameron and Lynette.

I let out a scream of frustration and spun around, but not before I slashed out and sent a violet Arc Wave slicing towards Vreth, hoping to stick them in place. Vreth leaped, revealing more purplish skin as his cloak flared out, and the dolls dropped below the spell. It continued on until it smeared itself on the distant framework of the canyon wall.

That was it. I had to let Cameron be taken. Lynette needed me more.

Black Swan's prehensile belts snapped in, spiraling around her torso and limbs until none remained free. The loops of red leather moved like muscle, like the bulk of a flayed body-builder, and sheathed her hands in metallic claws. She crouched, and leaped out into the lush canyon, her wings a luminous crimson as they churned in the air, propelling her upwards.

I drew deep on my reserve of awe, shining like a green star. Concrete cracked under my feet as I blasted off, leaping with enough force that the weak local gravity ceased to matter. I flew like a bullet, straight at Black Swan's back.

She rolled, banking out of my path at the last instant, and I continued up, on a straight line to collide with pressure dome at the top of the canyon. I traded awe for bliss, wreathing myself in an aura of violet drag. I lurched, slowing rapidly, but before I could lose too much speed, I thrust terror out in front of me in a Cloud Barrier, creating a tunnel of violet frictionlessness.

I never had much bliss, because it was hard to find, and I burned through my reserve of terror at a fearsome rate as I used the maneuvering half of my flight technique to carve a violet slide through the air. I curved around and streaked downward towards my enemy.

Metal shrieked and water sprayed from broken valves as Black Swan swooped to the canyon wall and tore an entire crop-laden rack from its moorings. The rack of greenery was as big as a truck, and she lifted it easily on Wings designed to carry her aloft in Earth's much stronger gravity. She hurled it at me with enough speed that it broke apart under the force of her throw, becoming a scattershot assault.

I smashed a red-glowing Brilliant Mercy through the largest piece, bursting through clumps of vegetable matter as I followed her movements with my Sight. I swung through a corkscrew, quickly casting three more Cloud Barriers behind me. Drag, explosion, acceleration. Propulsion. A burst of speed. The other half of my flight technique.

Black Swan banked around, and I rode my air-slide up to meet her. At the last instant, we both swerved, slamming into each other at an angle instead of straight-on. Sparks exploded from the thunderclap of her claws catching my staff.

We rebounded, and clashed again, locking together as she wrapped belts around my staff and I got a leg under her shoulder. I abandoned my flight technique and drew on awe, driving my fist into Black Swan's armored gut.

Grappling, we tumbled through the air until Black Swan managed to rake her claw across my thigh, digging bloody furrows into my leg. She twisted with Tentacle-enhanced strength, slamming my own staff into my head.

Dazed, she got me in a better hold and threw me into the canyon wall. Pipes and thin metal struts crunched and broke as my body carved through sixty feet of squash before I hit a load-bearing girder with a thunderous _clang_ and crashed down on my face in a tangle of fiber-optic cords.

The green aura faded from my skin as the last of my awe drained away. I closed my eyes and watched as two souls sped down the canyon away from me.

"Lyn," I whimpered. My fingers bit into the girder. "Not again."

I hauled myself up, planted my feet on the metal, and launched myself back out of the hole my body had carved. I used the last of my bliss and terror to swerve towards Black Swan's distant form, and ride down the entire length of the canyon.

Black Swan alighted on a huge concrete balcony, a mirror to where we'd started except for the glass-fronted structure above it, supported by a large, decorated pillar. The geometry of the world bent around that pillar, obvious in my Sight.

Black Swan vanished. I crashed down next to the pillar, rolled to my feet, and...

Gold eyes, gleaming.

...screeched to a halt. A small black stuffed lion sat on the concrete between me and the entrance to the Crossroads.

"No," I whispered in disbelief. "No!"

I blasted the Beacon avatar with a red Impact Bolt, and it exploded into bits of fur and fluff. I dashed to the pillar, throwing myself against the incorporeal mechanism, but before I'd moved it a foot, lightning poured through the gap.

I screamed, tossed backwards by the discharge. My head hit the ground as my muscles twitched, fighting my commands. A magical girl in a dark gray dress, woven through with silvery thread like a wearable thundercloud, emerged from the pillar with a crackling amulet hovering between her hands.

"Gl-Gloaming Spark..." I whispered. The crushing weight of my failure bore down on me. I'd killed this girl's best friend twice over.

A new Beacon avatar pranced into view as two more magical girls appeared. One was tall, dark skinned, dressed in elaborate form-fitting armor, and carried a warhammer. A Reinforcement Mage. The other was all in seafoam green, pale, long-haired, and brandished a sword. A Water Mage.

"We condemn you, Eternal Solace," the Beacon avatar said in its majestic, manly voice. "You have betrayed the good. You have betrayed yourself. You have betrayed your comrades."

I ignored everything except Valiant Beauty Gloaming Spark, looking at her through tear-filled eyes. None of the rest of it mattered. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Glo... Tess. I'm so sorry, Tess."

"Shut up, you traitor!" Gloaming Spark shouted at me. "You killed her! You killed her and stole her soul! What even _are_ you?!"

I tried to force my twitching limbs to support me, to stand, or at least kneel. The Water Mage shoved me with her foot, knocking me down again.

"I'm a failure," I whispered, looking up at Gloaming Spark. "I'm sorry. I tried to help, and now I've put others in harms way. But them I can still help..."

The Water Mage kicked me again, hard, in the stomach. I grunted, but it was surprising more than painful. She wasn't very strong. "Stuff it, traitor. We don't care about any of your bullshit lies."

I breathed out and squeezed my eyes shut as an ember of resolve kindled and hardened inside me. Gloaming Spark was one thing, but I didn't feel anything but smug superiority from this Water Mage. And the Beacon? They created this mess.

"No," I whispered in agreement. "You wouldn't care. Not about either of them. You would celebrate their demise."

"Kill her! Now!" the Beacon avatar suddenly shouted in alarm.

It was too late. The tall Reinforcement Mage threw her arms out and created a spherical shell of thrumming magic around the three of them in the split second before I slapped a green Radiant Hand down and shunted all of my stored revulsion into the concrete beneath me, as deep as I could go. At the same time, I funneled my entire reserve of triumph into a Burst Flare.

The resulting explosion, with me at its epicenter, ripped apart the entire balcony and launched the tall magical girl's spherical shield upwards into the canyon. I curled into a ball with my hands over my ears as the concussion shook me.

Slowly, I began to fall, one drop in a rain of debris.

Below me, the rocky floor of the canyon loomed. I still had most of my stored defiance. I glowed red as I fell, blasting downward at the same time. When I hit the bottom of the canyon, I kept going, boring a hole through rock and ice. Concrete and stone crashed down above me, sealing off the hole and hiding what I'd done.

Suddenly, it was silent, except for my breathing and sound of grinding rock as I sank. I was safe.

Some hours later, I broke through and squirted out into open water beneath a ragged ceiling of rocky ice. It was pitch dark, but the pylons driven down from the arcology above had lights on them, and that was enough to get my bearings.

I knew where I was, based on Jupiter's position in the sky, before. It was a two week swim to the nearest acugon outpost. Two weeks. At this point, all of my remaining hopes rested on Cameron.

I swam.


	11. CAMERON

_June 1st, 2027_  
_Upper Konassil, Cytheria_  
_Eirian Cottage_

Hot water sluiced down my face as I scrubbed my fingers through my hair, catching on tangles as I rinsed it out. My simulated body had fewer grooming needs than a real one, but without Style it wasn't magically immune to an accumulated week of bedhead, either.

Wiping water out of my eyes, I shut the shower off and leaned against the amber laminate. My connection to the real Cameron, deep in the place where my magic was supposed to be, pointed out into space. It hadn't changed since it first settled down.

Sighing, I swept the curtain aside and grabbed a towel to dry off.

Out in the master bedroom, Kale sat at the edge of the large circular air mattress that served as a full bed. He had his face in his hands, and his lean, pale body hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees. He looked up as I emerged from the bathroom, rubbing my head with the towel, and I paused, slowing down as I smiled at him.

Kale barely gave my nude body a second glance. "They should've been back by now." It wasn't a question.

I tossed the towel away and nodded soberly. "They should've been back by now. Something _is_ wrong."

Kale stood up, uncaring of his own nudity, and grabbed my shoulders. His fingers dug into my skin as he searched my face with the desperate anguish of a worried father. Finally, he relaxed and hung his head.

"There's nothing we can do, is there," Kale said.

"I don't know," I admitted.

Kale sighed. I leaned in, catching his lips from below and lifting his head with the kiss as I pressed myself into him. His cock, soft against my abs, stirred and twitched.

"Do you have a hairbrush, by the way?" I asked, hoping to distract him.

"Um," Kale said. "I have a comb? Your hair's short enough that might do."

I nodded in agreement, moving a little to rub my breasts on his chest. "If you think so. I don't really know what I'm doing, though. You've seen how it's supposed to look. Maybe you could do it for me?"

Kale seemed like the kind of man who knew how to brush a girl's hair for her. Sure enough, he softened at my request, and nodded. While he got his comb, I moved a chair over and set it facing the mirrored bathroom door.

With a little cajoling, I got Kale to sit down _without_ putting his pants on, and settled myself on the floor with my face in his lap. I nuzzled his penis until it started swelling, then wrapped my lips around it and nursed on it as it grew and firmed up in my mouth.

After a long pause, I felt him run the comb through my hair, gentle and slow. He guided my head with a delicate touch, keeping me steady while he worked, and I resisted the urge to tease him with more active stimulation. I was appealing to his sense of affection, not merely giving him pleasure. Suckling on his cock while he did my hair was part of an ongoing affirmation of his tender attentions and sexually motivated life choices.

He needed that.

Eventually the comb strokes stopped. "I think that's the best I can do."

I slowly slid my lips up over his glans until I was just kissing the tip, and looked up at him. "Thanks, Kale."

His lips quirked into a smile. "You're not going to look?"

Giggling, I obliged and twisted around onto my feet, standing up. My hair didn't look exactly as it usually did, but he'd done a good job anyway. I smiled at his reflection, and he reached out to caress my hip.

"Do you do this for Eelesia?" I wondered idly. I leaned into his touch.

"I used to," Kale told me. "Before, everything. Before she had magic. Before we, before I... transgressed."

"Transgressed?" I repeated with a snort. I turned and sat across his lap, threading his erection through the triangle formed by my thighs and mons. I kissed his lips, ignoring the empty throb in my core as his shaft nestled along my cleft. "You should really trust Eelesia enough to believe her when she says you aren't hurting her."

Kale pouted. "I know that. I know that very well. It's impossible to forget." He paused, then smiled weakly. "And, it's not like the power imbalance is even in my favor, these days. She's... all grown up and, breaking me out of prison."

I returned his smile with a light giggle. "Was that pride? That sounded like pride. Pride's good. Go with pride."

Kale buried his face in my chest and laughed into my boobs. "Yes, I suppose—I am incredibly proud of her, though perhaps not for that in particular." He lifted his head, gaze distant. "Though, I've never really seen her fight. Is she... good?"

"She's amazing," I assured him. Even though I'd barely seen more of Eelesia's skills than he had, I could extrapolate better from what I had seen. "She could kick my ass. With her eyes closed." I rose up slightly, dragging my pussy up the length of Kale's dick.

Kale nodded, smiling abstractly. "Maybe they're just lost, and there's nothing to worry—" he cut off with a gasping moan as I fed his cock into me and dropped my ass back into his lap.

I wiggled in place a little, then braced myself and swung my legs up, keeping them together as I rotated in Kale's lap. I caught his face between my calves, then let my legs part slightly to rest on his shoulders. I was flexible enough to straddle him like that and sit comfortably without falling backwards, and it gave his hands access to pretty much all of me while we fucked.

"Maybe," I agreed wryly as he kissed my leg. His hips started to roll, rocking me on his cock. "It's probably not _just_ that, but..." I stiffened.

Kale stopped. "What's wrong?"

"If you're right, maybe we _can_ help," I said in realization.

Kale sat up abruptly enough to spill a less flexible girl onto the floor. "How?"

I hesitated. "Keep fucking me," I told him. "It helps me think."

He looked at me with deep skepticism. I blushed. As excuses went, that one was pretty transparent, admittedly. I had to try, though. He deserved to finish without feeling guilty about it.

Kale stood up and set me down in the chair, his cock sliding out of me as he stood up. Or maybe I'd ruined the mood. I let him go with a sigh. He looked at me expectantly.

"Alright," I said, hopping up. "I have a connection to the real Cameron. When we're both in real space, it points in a _direction_. It doesn't give me any more information than that, but with a little work I think we could narrow the possibilities down to at least the correct celestial body."

"So we'll know where they are," Kale said, nodding. "Then what?"

"They might already know, or knowing might not even help," I warned him. "We can't know in advance. But if we figure it out and I dispel myself, then then you can be _sure_ they'll know. It isn't much, but..."

"We'll do it," Kale said, grabbing his pants. "If there's even a chance..."

"Alright," I said. "Do you know how to find out our exact venagraphical coordinates? We need that to measure the angle of the connection and plot it on a map of the solar system."

Doing it was harder than saying it. The internet on Venus had Google in name only, and the first three free map programs Kale found weren't locally mirrored. Then I had to lay on the floor for half an hour while Kale carefully measured the angle of my connection with a string.

Finally, we managed to plot a line that we were both confident in. It wasn't perfect, but there were only so many large bodies in the solar system to begin with.

"The moon. I mean, Luna," Kale said, correcting himself. "They're on Luna. That means... what?"

"That they're not late because they're traveling by ship for some reason?" I offered. I undid the string and stood up. "I'm sorry, Kale. It could be anything. But I doubt they're just lost. Either they already know where they are, or they've got bigger problems than not knowing where they are."

"Please, even if it only makes the smallest difference, I want you to go," Kale said, holding his head in his hands while he gazed up at me, imploring.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "At least while I'm here we know for a fact that the real Cameron is still alive. If I go, you won't even have that."

"It's not my peace of mind you should be worrying about," Kale sighed.

"I'll worry anyway, if that's okay with you," I said wryly. "But okay. Can you think of anything else I should know, first?"

"Um," Kale said. "Esidara is at the moon's, I mean Luna's, south pole, so head south?"

"I knew that already," I told him gently. "But thanks."

Kale's eyes traced their way down my body before slowly climbing back to my face. After a few silent moments, he closed his eyes and said, "Good luck."

"It's been lovely," I said, and tugged on the connection—

—heat and the screaming need for something, anything, to touch my boiling cunt, but I was blind, deaf, and helpless. A heavy, squirming weight dropped in my belly. My womb opened into my quivering vagina with a lurch of alien pleasure and a thick, solid warmth wriggled down my throbbing fuck tunnel and drove me into body-shaking orgasmic convulsions. It squeezed out of me with an orgasmic jolt, leaving my pussy to clench, empty, as the white-hot pleasure surging through me stagnated, sank in, and _burned_.

Ruined orgasm after ruined orgasm. I'd lost track of how many I'd endured before the screaming need and the need to scream had filled me to bursting. I couldn't scream. I couldn't even breathe. I was smothered. I couldn't see and I couldn't hear anything but the thundering of my own heart.

But I was lucid. And I remembered.

* * *

 _May 25th, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

I woke slowly, dazed, on my back. A pretty and youthful face rimmed by blonde locks loomed, upside-down, in front of me. Behind her, darkness, pulsing, shot through with veins of sickly green light.

A feminine voice, eager but wary. "She's waking up."

"Yes," the girl above me replied. "That means it worked. She's all yours."

All who's? My eyes snapped into focus on Hypnotic Dream's face. It was a trap! The fight! We'd lost. Adrenaline brought me to full alertness in an instant, and I _moved_.

My arms and legs wrenched taut and I slammed back down on the firm but spongy surface beneath me, stunned. That second voice laughed while Hypnotic Dream backed away.

I shook my head clear and looked around to assess my situation. I was spread out flat on my back with my hands and feet stuck inside lumpy mounds of some rubbery resin, on the warm floor of a small alcove that opened out onto a cavernous chamber that glistened in the sickly green radiance shining up from below where I couldn't see. The wet, grayish purple walls had an organic feel, and they were _alive_. My biology sense wasn't giving me anything but the equivalent of error messages, but that wasn't a null result. We were surrounded by flesh, and the glowing veins were filled with viridescent blood.

The second voice belonged to a nude woman, looming over me with a vengeful smirk while her hand rubbed between her legs. It was hard to tell with the monochromatic lighting, but her hair was bright, and her skin was a shade that could've been lavender. I knew her face.

Olandra. And behind her, a slack-faced Martin.

"You," I said with a deadly calm. "How long?"

"How long?" Olandra repeated smugly. "Since the beginning, of course." She held out her hand and Martin, zombie-like, took it and kissed her knuckles. "Martin here has been an excellent spy."

"You don't just control them," I said. That first erophage had gotten away. Even after the raid on Olandra's lair, I hadn't put it together. _Fuck!_ "Martin's been your thrall since that night, and _you can see through his eyes_."

"The one that got away," Olandra mused. Her expression darkened and she stepped over my body to stand directly over me. "I knew you'd come after him if I took him. You magical _cunts_ are all the same. Can't ever leave well enough alone. But I figured, if I didn't provoke you, and you didn't have an obnoxious bunnycat whispering in your ear, you would have no reason to trouble me."

"Easy mistake to make," I said blandly.

Olandra snarled and dropped down to sit on me. I grunted as she drove her weight into my gut ass-first. She seized my breasts and wrenched my nipples upward, crushing them between her fingers and _twisting_. I hissed through a clenched jaw as pain mixed with pleasure and inflamed my body with aching shivers.

"It was _your_ mistake," Olandra said, sneering. "You've offended powers far greater than me, _Cameron_."

"Is that why you haven't killed me yet?" I asked.

"Oh, they want you alive," Olandra told me, grabbing my face. "You're going to live for a very long time, and you're never going to leave this place. But that's for after I'm done with you. You may have ruined me, but I still have leverage while I still have thralls." Her fingers bit into my cheeks as she leaned in closer. "And I'm going to save your lover for last."

I flexed my facial muscles against her fingers and raised an eyebrow. "I fuul 'ike I'm misshing shome contexsh," I told her blandly, "but rather than ashk, I think I'll jusht..." I took a breath and prepared to chant my transformation aria.

A chill raced up my spine. The words. I didn't know the words. I _didn't know_ the words to my transformation aria! They were etched at the center of my soul and I couldn't read them! My heart surged with a rising panic.

"You're trying to transform, aren't you," Olandra said, clearly enjoying my reaction. "That's not going to wor~ork."

"What the fuck? No. What did you do?" I demanded. "What did you do to me?!"

Hypnotic Dream spoke up, her tone neutral. "I've built a mental block around your aria. I'm sorry. I promise I didn't do anything else. Broader effects are weaker, and this one needed to be as strong as possible. I couldn't even keep you asleep with it in place."

Olandra twisted around to scowl at the frilly Psychic Mage. "What did you tell her that for? I was finally getting to her!"

I couldn't argue. It was possible that I was in actual serious trouble. Could I still use my spells the long way? I could manipulate them like normal, but I couldn't read their names. I couldn't cast them. My modules. I still had two copies out there. Would eight of me, without magic, accomplish any more than one? Did I have anything useful in my Pocket?

Olandra slapped me, the blow stinging along the side of my face. "Pay attention. I _said_ we're going to rape you."

How one-note. That actually helped me calm down. I rolled my eyes. "You can try."

"You're not going anywhere," Olandra gloated. "There's nothing to you can do to stop us."

I snorted. "Who said anything about stopping you?"

"You... what?" Olandra blinked. "You think you're going to _enjoy this_ , you delusional little slut? Oh but _I'm_ going to _enjoy_ breaking you."

That wasn't what I meant, but it was weirdly vindicating that her mind passed right over the truth without seeing it. I didn't care if I ended up enjoying what she planned to do to me. Using sex as a threat, _validating_ the use of sex as a threat against _me_ , was an affront to everything I stood for.

"How do you imagine you're going to do that?" I taunted her. "You're not allowed to damage me. You have a time limit. _She_ can't fuck with my head anymore than she already has. You've kind of boxed yourself in, don't you think?"

Olandra yanked on my nipples again, sparking twinges of arousal from the pain and making me gasp. "That's what you think." She looked up. "Martin, take off your clothes. You're going to shove your cock down this whore's throat and leave it there until her gagging makes you cum, or she passes out, whichever."

Martin began to mechanically undress. I thought about throwing out duplicates, but Hypnotic Dream caught my eye and waggled her finger. She was reading me. Besides, killing Olandra still had the problem that I didn't know what would happen to her thralls.

A part of me didn't want to escape, though. That part of me _wanted_ to take everything she could dish out just to prove I could, and then laugh in her face.

I shot Olandra a look of disdain as a naked Martin knelt over my head. His cock was soft, but he pressed it against my mouth as instructed. I tilted my head back pointedly and took the soft head between my lips, massaging it with my tongue until it started to grow.

I felt Olandra kneel between my legs, but I wasn't really able to see anything except Martin's balls. He leaned forward, pressing his pelvis down against my face. I took a deep breath and braced myself as his cock got hard enough to reach my throat.

It jabbed at me, shoving against my gag reflex, and I shuddered as I fought against the rebellion in my guts, swallowing frantically. The shaft only got harder and thicker and started to throb, refreshing the urge to gag over and over. But beyond that point, it didn't get any worse.

I was achingly wet between my legs. I was mostly too focused on the violent lurching discomfort higher up to notice or care as my limbs instinctively struggled and failed to pull free, but while my body twitched and shuddered, I was inwardly calm. Even like this, helpless at the mercy of a genuine enemy, a small part of me _was_ getting off on being tied down and forced to choke on a cock, and that had a rather positive effect on my slut's ego.

Olandra was a sexual fear personified. Her inborn fey patterns could only ever lead her thoughts back to the same ideas. The pride of a slut would be forever alien to her, and I took mine further than most.

My lungs burned.

Suffocating was more unpleasant than gagging. Or maybe it seemed that way because I'd never experienced it before. Either way, I couldn't stop myself from thrashing as my vision went dark and my lungs ascended over my throat in urgency, before everything faded to soothing blackness.

* * *

I lurched awake, coughing and gasping for breath with Martin's slobbery cock laying across my face.

"That was fun," Olandra said. "Wasn't that fun? You turned blue. Let's do it again. Do remember not to bite. That is still your friend's flesh you'd be maiming."

Martin shoved his shiny erection between my lips, and I managed to get control of myself enough to swallow him rather than inhale him. I gagged and shuddered as he bottomed out, his balls covering my nose.

Eventually, I suffocated and passed out again.

* * *

A brutal, stinging slap to my flushed vulva jolted me awake. I moaned, because the impact barely hurt at all and it sent trembling waves of pleasure rolling through my flesh, nearly pushing me to the threshold of orgasm.

The moan turned into a coughing fit halfway through.

While I caught my breath, Martin knelt by my hip, unmoving. It was his hand on my pussy, while Olandra stood in the entrance to the alcove, having some kind of whispered argument with a tall figure shrouded in a concealing cloak. Hypnotic Dream wasn't there, though.

"Hey, Martin," I croaked. He didn't react. "I don't know if you can hear me in there, but I'm sorry. I should've thought of this possibility sooner." He still didn't react. In fact, Olandra was probably listening through his ears. "Don't worry about me. Olandra's weaksause sadism is so tame I'm almost bored." I smirked, deciding to needle her. "She promised me rape, but all she's delivered is disappointment."

Olandra spun around and snarled at me. "I'm just getting started!"

I smiled blandly at her. Martin drew his arm back and delivered an even more brutal smack to my pussy. The wet sound of the impact jolted through me with a burst of pleasure, before the stinging pain hit and had to I bite off a gasp. Martin squeezed my labia and twisted, hard, forcing a strangled shriek through my gritted teeth.

"You are, in fact, quite done," the cloaked figure replied in a deep, sibilant hiss. "You have already spent what little capital remained to you, after your failure, on this... diversion."

"Lord Vreth, that failure was her fault!" Olandra bit out, gesturing to my pinned and displayed self as Martin released my aching pussy lips. "You should _want_ me to punish her."

"Vengeance is your priority, not ours," the inhuman voice that apparently belonged to 'Vreth' replied. "Hhh. Need I remind you that the mercenary works for us, not for you?"

"I was saving time! You would've given her the same orders," Olandra protested defensively. "Just give me six more hours, Lord Vreth. I have a plan, but I need the other one."

Other one?

"Do not call me that," Vreth hissed. "I am not your lord. Hhh. We are mutual parasites, and you are the lesser." A purplish grey hand struck out from within the cloak and closed around Olandra's neck, hauling her closer to the hood. "Do not compound your failure with further impudence."

A seething Olandra managed to nod. "Fine." She was released. She rubbed her neck. "Fine. But what about my plan?"

"Hhh. We will not tolerate further delays for the sake of your wounded pride," Vreth replied. "They are no longer your concern, and they will be informed that your orders are not to be followed."

"You still need me," Olandra snarled.

"For now," Vreth replied. "Hhh. If you wish to part on survivable terms, I suggest you do not... push your luck."

With a huff, Olandra pivoted on her heel and snapped her fingers. Martin stood up, went to gather his clothes, and followed Olandra out. She put a possessive arm around Martin's shoulders and her lips curled in a cruel smirk as she led him away.

"Wait!" I said. "I'll be a lot more cooperative if you don't let her keep my friend!"

"Hhh," Vreth said. "I imagine you will be more cooperative if she is ordered not to harm your friend, but may if you resist."

"Alright," I agreed. "Let's go with that?"

Vreth moved forward, unclasping the cloak. It billowed open as he strode towards me and shadowed him against the mysterious green radiance from outside. Then the cloak fell to the floor, revealing Vreth's body in full as he came to a stop between my legs.

I swallowed as my eyes feasted on the creature standing over me.

Grayish purple skin, with faint green veins underneath, kind of like the walls. Unlike the walls, Vreth was sleek and symmetrical, with two legs, four arms, and a tail. Two pits, which could not be mistaken for eyes from this close, burned with a harsh light from the front of his head, which split into downward-pointing tentacles. Vreth's torso was surprisingly human and gorgeously masculine, though there was a horizontal crease through the middle of his pectorals. Two beautifully meaty penises dangled from his smooth crotch, one above the other, between powerful thighs that blended into inhuman legs with clawed feet. Behind him swished a thin, nimble tail with an odd clear bell-tip, like a flower made of cellophane.

"Whoa," I breathed, as an unexpected throb of arousal made my pussy pulsate. And laid out like I was, with him standing between my spread legs, he had to have seen it.

I looked at his face again, such as it was. The glowing pits were arranged under a recognizable brow, and of his tentacles, the central one was the largest, almost like a trunk, with two thinner tentacles beside it and two more even thinner tentacles tucked behind. The effect was something like a _reverse_ uncanny valley, my brain parsing his monstrous features as beautifully alien.

"No," Vreth said.

I blinked. "What?"

"Your cooperation is irrelevant," Vreth said simply. "Hhh. There will be no bargaining about your planned fates." He didn't turn around, but the sway of his tentacles seemed to imply his attention was directed behind him. "Olandra. Put that one with the favored hosts to await implantation. He has served his purpose, and you have dallied with him long enough."

"But!" Olandra protested.

Vreth whipped his tentacled face around to glare at her. She clenched her hands, seething, but she bowed and led Martin out of sight. This implantation thing didn't sound like anything good. And apparently my cooperation was irrelevant. Well, fine. I might not get a better opportunity anyway. I pushed out and—

—I was suddenly free, laying on top of myself. I threw myself to my feet and launched into a spinning kick.

Gravity was weaker than I expected, and my kick went high. Vreth wove under my foot and skipped aside, spinning to lash out with one of his much longer legs.

I caught the blow on my forearms and went flying into the meaty wall of the alcove. I hit with a grunt, and slapped my hands flat against the stiff flesh. A second copy of me appeared on top of the real Cameron. As I pushed off the wall, she attacked one of the rubbery mounds cementing the real Cameron's hands.

Vreth backed away. "Hhh. You will accomplish nothing."

"Get out of my way," I said to him.

To my immense surprise, he stepped aside, leaving a clear path out of the alcove. "By all means. Try."

My other copy wasn't making any progress at freeing the real Cameron. I glared suspiciously at Vreth, but he merely stood there. I darted by, and he didn't move to stop me. I took off at a flat run.

The narrow ledge sloped downward, revealing the source of the eerie green radiance. A circular lake stretched across the bottom of a vast fleshy cavern beneath an inverted conical mass of organic webbing. The lake was sunken into a raised lip on a bony plateau, ringed by pulsing, wiggling protrusions that curved in to overhang the slowly rippling liquid. Dots of green light swam through a blazing reef of luminous sulcular matter, an exposed brain of ludicrous proportions. The strength went out of me as its sluggish pulsations pounded against my fraying skin like—

—the short scream that bubbled out of my mouth, that hadn't had time to escape before I'd _melted_ under that horrible light. I shuddered.

"Stop," I told my other copy, and dispelled her, because that was not a memory I could share with words.

Vreth looked at me. "A reasonable attempt. Hhh. But such false constructs cannot survive the holy light. All of your abilities are accounted for."

I stared at him, still wordless and reeling.

"You will be seen to, shortly," Vreth said.

He picked up his cloak and left me alone, then. I let my head fall back and thunk against the fleshy floor. "Shit."

* * *

 _May 25th, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

I didn't know what Vreth's idea of 'shortly' was, but the time I spent waiting to find out went by at a crawl.

There was no one guarding me, and no door to keep me in, but I was glued to the floor and my duplicates couldn't cross the threshold without melting in the Horror's glow. My ability to escape, without my magic, was contemptible. Why _shouldn't_ they leave me unattended in the open, exposed and presented to anyone who happened to pass by? Anyone at all could walk in and see my slutty cunt, so appealingly displayed and accessible.

I squirmed, biting back a faint whine as my butt slid around in puddle of my own juices. Gods all, I was horny, but I couldn't get the thoughts out of my head. Vreth's monstrous body was possibly the sexiest thing I'd ever seen, and I didn't even know _why_.

I reached for Duplicate, but hesitated, one thought away from giving in and fucking myself. Only one thing stopped me. I didn't know what was going to happen to me. I didn't know if it would be better to face it horny, or sated, but I suspected the former.

Sighing, I knocked the back of my head against the fleshy floor and closed my eyes. I could hear footsteps, dull impacts of flesh on flesh. My eyes flew open and my core lurched in anticipation, sending a wet spasm through my pussy.

The footsteps got louder, until they reached my alcove, revealing three members of Vreth's species. All three were naked, with subtly different shading to their skin. I wasn't sure which one was Vreth, if any of them were.

They moved into the alcove, surrounding and looming over me. Unlike the first two, the last one in had a duo of rigid cocks standing out straight from his crotch instead of merely dangling.

I licked my lips and didn't even try to hide the wry hopefulness in my voice. "Are you here to rape me?"

None of them replied, or even reacted to the question. I frowned. All three tentacle-faced creatures were just as big as Vreth, and just as monstrously gorgeous, but there was something softer about them, something more raw. _Younger?_

Without a word, the first two went down on one knee and snaked their tails onto the resin mounds trapping my hands. The clear flower bells at the tips of their tails opened and covered each mound. In moments, I felt the rubbery hardness around my fingers start to ooze.

Three strong hands tightly gripped each of my arms to keep me restrained, and my feet were still just as stuck, so the liquefying resin on my hands was interesting in the abstract but not immediately exciting.

The aroused horrorspawn lowered himself to straddle my chest. His lower cock slapped down between my breasts, a silky bar of luscious heat. He grabbed my hair with both of his secondary hands and forced my head up. His upper cock glanced off my nose to rest against my cheek.

I breathed in, deep. Mostly to settle my nerves but also because his scent, while oddly subdued, was compellingly pleasant. Both cocks were same shape and size, dusky purple, but otherwise strikingly human and beautifully formed. I tried to get my lips around the tip of his upper penis, but he held my head immobile, apparently uninterested in the proximity of his erect penises to a horny slut's eager mouth.

That was... discouraging.

While the other two held my arms, the last's tail curved around and spurted something on the floor under my head. He shoved down, forcing the back of my head into the goop. His tail rose, and the clear bell at the end dribbled more purplish slime over the top of my head.

It began to set, an inverse of the sensation of the liquefying resin on my hands. I began to wonder why they'd need to free my arms while keeping my head glued down, but apparently that wasn't what they had in mind, because as soon as the resin started to set, the flaccid pair hauled me up into a sitting position.

"Can you guys even talk?" I wondered.

No response. No reaction.

The floor wriggled. A groove opened up beneath me and my butt slid down into it, wedging my lower back and thighs against the sides of the opening. One of the horrorspawn's tail bells flattened out into a clear disk, which he pressed against my belly. I twitched in surprise as a series of what felt like mild electric shocks penetrated into my guts.

All of the muscles in my abdomen relaxed at once, then my bladder let go, and I yelped in surprise. There wasn't much for it to let go _of_ , but I was still startled. Once I was empty, the horrorspawn removed his tail from me and the groove closed, squeezing me up and out. I watched that clear disk reform into a clear bell shape, unnerved.

Five separate hands grabbed the cap of resin on my head. I sucked in a gasp of alarmed understanding an instant before their combined strength ripped the rubbery substance away from my scalp.

"Ahhhhh!!" I screamed. "Fuck!"

All my hair tore out at the root, cemented inside the resin. It hurt a _lot_ , but worse was the... the _vandalism_ of the physical appearance I'd grown so attached to. Horrorspawn the third tossed the lump of resin into the corner.

"What the _fuck_?!" I snarled, blinking the sting of tears out of my eyes as every nerve in my naked scalp screamed at me. "What was the point of _that_?"

Hands dug harder into my arms, and I saw that the two horrorspawn at my sides had clawed feet and tails dug into the floor to hold themselves down as they struggled against my strength. I strained a moment longer out of spite, then went limp.

Smashing those two faceless heads together might've made me feel better, but it wouldn't be helpful. I wasn't going to punch my way out of this, at least not while they were expecting that.

Now that I wasn't trying to lift _them_ off the floor, the first two horrorspawn lifted _me_ off the floor and balanced me on my feet, which were still glued down, but at least I was standing. Each of them took a tail to one of my hands and covered my wrists in goo, then stretched upwards, stringing strands of goo between my arms and the fleshy ceiling. Behind me, the erect one pulled my arms and glued my wrists together behind my back. The strands connecting me to the ceiling began to contract and solidify, pulling my arms upward at an angle that forced me to bend forward and stick my ass out.

My earlier arousal came rushing back as the gorgeous monster grabbed my hips with his lower hands and steadied me. I let out a needy, wanton moan that was _entirely_ sincere and wiggled hopefully, but he didn't react to my squirming.

The first two horrorspawn walked out, descending the slope towards the lake, while the third moved in and rubbed the head of one cock through my slippery pussy lips, sliding up and down to tease my entrance and glide over my clit. It was his lower penis, I saw, peeking at him over my shoulder.

"Do you, even care if I'm into this?" I wondered breathlessly. "Can you even _tell the difference_?"

I still wasn't sure if he was ignoring me or if he genuinely couldn't talk. Either way, I almost came when he lined himself up and pressed the first few inches of his fat purple cock into my pussy, splitting me open and stretching me over his girth. I expected his upper cock to go into my ass, but he let it slip further up to nestle between my cheeks instead.

With his lower hands holding my hips firmly in place, his upper arms folded around my torso to let those hands reach my breasts. His clawed fingers traced over my sensitive skin, kneading my softest flesh and teasing my nipples. A feathery caress trailed up the back of my neck and along the raw skin of my scalp until a pair of tentacles slithered forward into my field of view, and a third thicker one snaked down my forehead.

I hovered on the edge of orgasm, throbbing around the thick meat stuffed in my vagina, as four hands and a face of tentacles played with my body.

A slick, wet heat spilled out from the crown of my skull, oozing outward to cover my scalp. It rippled and squeezed, sucking the top of my head deeper into its oozing warmth, like a mouth. Because it _was_ a mouth. It was the horrorspawn's mouth!

My pussy spasmed, cumming just a little as the jolt of fear passed through my body. I didn't feel anything like teeth, and I knew they needed me intact, but it was kind of unnerving all the same.

The two smallest tentacles gently plugged my ears. The two larger tentacles curled over my eyes. The largest, trunk-like tentacle slid down over my nose and mouth to curl is tip under my chin. It had a soft cleft on its underside that let it fit over my nose comfortably without obstructing my breathing, with a series of nubs that fit around my lips.

It still kind of felt like being eaten.

He drew his hips back, sliding his cock halfway out, before he slammed back in and started thrusting, one cock inside, one cock slipping through my crack as his hips slapped my butt. A gasping moan tore out of me, muffled by his tentacle trunk, as convulsions of bliss swelled up in my core and burst free across my body, my skin, my head and the nothing pulling from beyond.

_Wait, what?_

Something was wrong. I was cumming, but it was like pleasure in a dream, seemingly felt, but passing through me without touching me, dull and empty.

I could feel the beautiful monster's touch, the vivid impacts of his thrusts, and the phallic girth stroking in and out of my pussy. All of those sensations were starkly clear, driving spasms into my sex, but the effects of those spasms were sucked out of my head before a true _orgasm_ could manifest.

I couldn't cum. The horrorspawn was fucking me towards an orgasm I couldn't reach, pounding into me and bringing me over the edge again and again without letting me fall, the need burning higher and higher until it flashed over into desperation.

The need to cum drained away. The desperation drained away.

Blissfully, a rigid shaft massaged my inner walls while fingers massaged my stiff nipples and hands moved me. I sagged, letting out a sigh of luxurious contentment as my monstrous lover caressed me with his steady pounding thrusts, leaving me to drift in a haze of peace.

The bliss drained away. The peace drained away.

I would've blinked if my eyelids were movable. Inwardly, I reeled as I seemed to wake up from a fugue, suddenly aware again that I was strung up in an uncomfortable pose while some vile creature shoved its dick into me and raped me.

Why was I okay with that, again? I shook my head, knowing that thought was wrong but not why. The jabbing of the horrorspawn's dick inside me started to drag uncomfortably, my body resisting, my vagina wilting as it refused to respond to stimulation.

No.

A dull panic crept in around the edges of my mind. I had a penis going into my vagina. If my vagina didn't respond to that then _what good was it_? I squirmed, growing frantic as my body betrayed me, sinking from liquid pleasure into lurching pain.

The panic drained away. The pain drained away.

I went slack in my bonds, held up only by strong hands. The horrorspawn climaxed, ejaculating in silence. Cum splashed on my back, and spurted into my depths. My womb filled with warmth, but I was empty.

After a moment of stillness, the horrorspawn drew his lower penis out of me and fed his upper penis into my numb hole. In the dullness, a spark of vivid pleasure ignited.

He started thrusting, fucking me with one cock while the other one slid down to grind against my clit, and my pussy melted, once more serving its faithful purpose by becoming slippery and accommodating around his intrusive phallus. Waves of pleasure crashed out to fill my empty void full to bursting, until it swelled and ignited into an explosion of ecstasy that could never have fit inside a mind that hadn't been hollowed out first. I was cumming, hard, impossibly hard, so hard that I wasn't _having_ an orgasm, I _was_ an orgasm.

The ecstasy drained away.

My head cleared, a little, as I moaned into his tentacle trunk. I pushed my hips back to meet his thrusts, helping him move me as he fucked me. I was going to cum again, I was going to...

I didn't cum, and eventually, the need drained away.

* * *

I collapsed on the fleshy floor in shivering heap.

Whimpering, I tried to open my sticky eyes as my ability to form coherent thoughts slowly pieced itself back together. I didn't even care that my limbs were free and unbound. That had either been the best sex of my life, or the worst, and I couldn't decide which.

After that first horrorspawn had finished fucking and brain-sucking me halfway into a coma, he'd left and another of the unfairly sexy creatures had come in to take his turn. One after another, they used me, consuming me in an endless erotic nightmare.

Four careful hands rolled me onto my back, cradling my neck in the crook of an arm. A face of glowing pits and tentacles swam into focus above me. Something smooth and hard pressed against my lips and dribbled cool water into my mouth. I latched on to the perfectly mundane water bottle and drank, desperately thirsty.

Once I had my fill, he took the water away and set me down. I tried to curl up, but strong hands gripped my limbs and spread me flat. Viscous slime poured over my hands and feet before hardening into that rubbery resin, sticking me to the floor. I moaned unhappily as the silent minion left me there, alone.

While my muscles were slackened and loose, my skin throbbed, craving touch. After an experience that intense, especially since I still couldn't decide if it had been awesome or horrible, I wanted cuddles.

Sluggishly, I reached inward and managed to activate Duplicate.

A warm, soft weight draped over me as another Cameron materialized on top of me, face to face, and then flopped against me. I sucked in a breath. Her head was bald, mirroring my own condition, and it was startling to see from the outside for the first time. Groaning, the other Cameron dragged her arms and legs in and clung to me. Her silky skin rubbed my own sweat-slicked body, and we let out a soft moan in tandem.

Sleep claimed us both without warning.

* * *

 _May 26th, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

I snapped awake at the sound of voices. My human blanket jolted awake on top of me and lifted her head, only to abruptly freeze in place. I felt the other Cameron's body go stiff as she breathed out a pained hiss. Her entire back was shiny with sunburn, luminous in the gloom as faint hints of aurora glow leaked through her skin.

That horrible radiance. Even indirect, it was enough to do this. The other Cameron's face cleared when she had what was probably the same thought. I dispelled her—and sighed with relief as the feverish sting ceased.

"...want to make sure they see each other like this," came Olandra's voice. "It shouldn't make a difference to you."

"I weary of indulging you, fey," Vreth's low hissing voice replied. "Hhh. And yet, Swan has returned with your prize, sooner than expected."

"Mmmphmmph!" a muffled girl's voice strained, angry.

"My new artifact did allow this acquisition to go considerably smoother than the last one," a woman's voice said. "Invisibility synergizes well with my favored tactics."

I sucked in a breath as Ethereal Magus Black Swan strode into view, in her raiment, carrying a struggling naked girl over her shoulder, bound in animate belts. My eyes went wide. Bree! Oh shit, of course. Bree'd been there too. If they'd sent Black Swan after me, of course they'd go after Bree as well.

"Hold," Vreth said. He stopped at the entrance to my alcove, wrapped in his cloak with the hood down. "Very well. Hhh. Put them together. I care not."

Bree froze when she saw me, spread out naked on the floor, and her face twisted in dismay. "Kphmrmmrn?!"

Black Swan dumped her into the alcove between my feet. Bree sprang up the instant she was free and took a swing at Black Swan, but Black Swan caught her fist, then her other fist, and held on with contemptuous ease while her belts guarded against Bree's kicks.

"Le'go! Let me go you crazy bitch!" Bree cried.

"Do you mind," Black Swan said to Vreth.

Vreth merely nodded and swung his tail forward to paint the floor between my feet with resin slime. Black Swan spun Bree around and used her belts to force Bree's knees down into the goo and hold her there until it hardened.

"Eugh! What is this stuff?!" Bree demanded as she struggled and failed to move her buried legs. She looked at me, wide-eyed. "Cameron! What's going on?! Where are we? Are you okay? What happened to your _hair_?"

"Oh, you'll see," Olandra gloated.

My eyes slid over to the fey, and narrowed. "I've been worse."

Bree yelped as Black Swan shoved her forward onto her hands and Vreth glued her down, leaving her stuck in a crawling pose, facing me from between my spread legs. She turned her head away, flinching from the up-close view of my wide-open vulva, and I glared at Olandra for causing such a thing to happen.

Olandra smirked at me and skimmed forward, wraithlike, to grab Bree's hair. "Oh, you're not enjoying this, you thirsty whore? You're not eager to get your friend's tongue forced up your cunt?"

Bree shrieked at that, panicking as Olandra forced her head down towards my crotch. No. Not happening. She was _not_ going to use _my_ vagina to distress Bree. I poured power into Duplicate and—

—slapped the floor, throwing myself up off the real Cameron. I locked my legs around Olandra's neck and flipped backwards, throwing her into a third Cameron that appeared to catch her.

Together, the two of us wrestled her ass-up against the back of the alcove, pinning her arms and legs down against the fleshy wall. The position left her plump lavender labia exposed and vulnerable, and a part of me was tempted by it, but Olandra deserved far worse than anything I was willing to do to any vagina.

"Swan! Stop her!" Olandra snapped, bucking in our grip. "Free me!"

Vreth shook his head dismissively. "This one knows she must not kill you. Hhh. Her friend, and many others would suffer your siren curse, if she did."

Black Swan gave Vreth a skeptical raised eyebrow. He motioned for her to stay put, and she folded her arms with a shrug. I shot him a winsome smile.

"She can still _hurt_ me!" Olandra exclaimed.

"That, is a really good point," I said. I started twisting Olandra's ankle. "I wonder how many of your bones I can break before you start to dissolve."

I wrenched, hard, and her joint cracked under my hands. Olandra screamed. Vreth's face tentacles writhed in agitation.

"Hhh, yes, that is a good point," Vreth admitted. "However, you have, by all reckoning, brought this on yourself."

The other Cameron copy twisted. Olandra's other ankle broke, and she bellowed angrily. I moved with her thrashing, countering her attempts to gain leverage.

"Still," Vreth said. "This farce has gone on long enough."

The pits on his tentacled face burst alight, searing through me with beams of green radiance—

—I flinched as Vreth's eyeless eye-beams melted my copies—and slammed back into my real self with a pained gasp and a horrified shiver. Melting like that _sucked_. I collected myself and saw that only Black Swan seemed unsurprised. I was reeling. Olandra gaped. Even Bree stopped trying to yank her limbs free.

"Oh," I said into the stunned silence, lifting my head off the floor. "You've got deadly face lasers. Okay."

"I channel the holy light," Vreth said simply.

At no visible signal, two of Vreth's minions came in, their monstrous, masculine bodies bare and beautiful as they picked up a groaning Olandra and carried her out. Bree blanched as she got her first good look at them. Vreth swept off after them, leaving Bree and I alone with Black Swan.

For a long moment, no one spoke. Bree trembled. Black Swan pulled a wooden figurine of a bound woman out of a seam in the air, shifting it idly from hand to hand as she regarded me with something like respect.

"Your ally the Empathy Mage is dead," Black Swan told me.

My breath caught. Eelesia. I swallowed. "I thought you needed us alive."

"We didn't kill her," Black Swan explained casually. "She _escaped_. She beat me." The wooden figurine vanished back into a seam in the air. "Someone _else_ ambushed her. Isn't that interesting? They hounded her until she had to pull a suicide attack."

An icy anger sank all the way into my bones. "Beacon."

Black Swan inclined her head. "On that sentiment, we can agree."

"But," Bree spoke up, tentative. "But what _are_ we here for? Why can't I get my Style to work? Why, why can't I remember my _aria_?"

"It's a mental block," I said, catching Bree's eyes. "Your magic isn't gone, you just... wait, your Style doesn't work?"

"You're just now noticing that?" Black Swan asked with an incredulous lilt.

It honestly hadn't occurred to me to want clothes at any point since they brought me here, actually. "It hasn't come up."

Black Swan stared at me flatly. "It's the light. The light of the Elder Brain interferes with _all_ simulation. It's an effect that's rather benign, as Horror auras go, but quite useful for our purposes in this case."

That, was actually obvious, now that I thought about it. Melting my duplicates might even be a side effect, and keeping us naked the intended purpose.

"Cameron, what's she talking about?" Bree asked nervously. "What're they going to do to us?"

I gave Bree an encouraging smile. "We've been kidnapped and locked up in an eldritch abomination's rape dungeon. But don't worry. I'm pretty sure they only want us for our bodies."

Black Swan made a very undignified noise, like a giggly squeak that turned into a hacking wheeze as she doubled over. Straightening up, she laughed into the back of her hand.

With a flinch at the laughter, Bree's soft brown hair spilled forward to tickle my thigh as she hung her head and whimpered, "Crap."

A sinking feeling made me bite my lip. Bree really wasn't prepared to handle something like this. I was mildly shaken, and I laughed in the face of rape. Bree... was actually afraid, and she didn't even know about the brain-sucking part yet. This was going to go badly.

I swallowed a sudden chill. "How many other magical girls have you taken? How many are still here?"

"Oh, dozens," Black Swan answered, gesturing outward. "That's the beauty of using magical girls. We're renewable. And _they_ , are patient."

"Then, what do they need Olandra's thralls for?" I asked.

Black Swan shrugged. "Do you know what 'ceremorphosis' is?"

"No..."

"You'll see it, once you're ready for the spawning pool," Black Swan said ominously. "A simple explanation won't do it justice, so I think you'll have to live in suspense, for now. It's time."

"Time?" Bree squeaked. "Time for what?"

Without responding, Black Swan moved aside as one of the silent minions came in. He was nude, his gorgeously masculine monster body on display, with a throbbing pair of erections standing out from his crotch. Bree twisted to get a look at him and let out a tiny intimidated noise. She started trembling again.

Straddling Bree's back, the humanoid horrorspawn grabbed her hair and brought his tail around, covering her head in resin slime. As it hardened, she scrunched her face up with a whimper and her whole body went tense.

The four-armed creature tore the cap of resin, and all of Bree's hair, from her head. Bree's scream was heart-wrenching.

The result looked even worse than I remembered it feeling. Her scalp was blotchy, dotted red, and even oozed droplets of blood in a few places. Sucking in frantic breaths, Bree thrashed from side to side, rolling her head around wildly like she could find some relief from the pain if she just stretched far enough.

The horrorspawn caught her neck between his upper hands, and forced her head to stop moving. His three primary face tentacles separated from the two smaller tentacles as his mouth dilated open, allowing him to lean down and swallow the top of Bree's head. Her eyes flew open and locked on mine, wild, until his tentacles folded down over her face and blinded her.

Abruptly, Bree gasped and slackened. "It... doesn't hurt?"

"He's eating your pain," Black Swan explained. "Isn't that nice of him?"

Bree made an uncertain noise, which rapidly escalated into a muffled protest as the horrorspawn pushed down on her head and back, forcing her ass to stick up behind her. Poised above her, he lowered himself with his powerful inhuman legs, aiming his cocks downward to prod at Bree's delicate little slit.

"No no no! Not like this! No!" came Bree's panicked cry, muffled by the tentacle pressed to her lips as she tried to squirm away from the silent minion's implacable phallus.

"Bree," I croaked. "Bree, it, it'll be okay. You..."

Bree switched from trying to dodge to just holding still and clenching her body as hard as she could. That wasn't good. That was one of the worst things she could possibly do in this situation, even if she couldn't feel pain.

Thankfully, the horrorspawn didn't seem to be in a hurry. He just kept up a steady pressure with his upper cock, enough to breach a wet pussy but not a dry one. He didn't need more than that, because her body gradually responded to the insistent force. Eventually, her squished labia slipped apart all at once, popping up around the tip of the horrorspawn's penis.

"Ahh!" Bree gasped. "No! No no! Oh gods it feels... so..." She broke off with a piteous whine as her pussy engulfed the silent minion's cock, finally giving way.

"Bree!" I said. "Don't... Just let your body handle... You can do this. Okay? You can do this. Just, focus on what you can do, because what you can do is this." I knew I wasn't making much sense. It was clear to me how I coped in her place, but every instinct I had screamed that there weren't words succinct enough to help her do the same.

Bree shuddered as the horrorspawn drew a few inches out and thrust back in. Tears leaked down her cheeks from beneath the tentacles, but she'd stopped fighting him and turned on herself, fighting the pleasure she felt instead.

I snarled under my breath, frustrated. I knew it would be worse than useless to just _tell_ her to accept and ride out the experience, but there had to be some way to help her feel less violated. She wasn't even fighting _for_ anything. The horrorspawn probably didn't even _know the difference_.

I sucked in a breath. That was it. That was the key. Olandra was out of the picture. This wasn't malice. It was merely objectification in its purest form. In a sense, she wasn't being raped, she was just projecting the existence of a rapist onto the impersonal forces affecting her body. _That_ was the frame of mind I had to help her reach.

"Bree," I spoke up, my voice strong. "Look at me. Bree, look at me. You know what I look like. You don't need your eyes. Come on."

Bree's head moved, as much is it could, and she made a questioning noise between strained whimpers as the horrorspawn drove his hard shaft down into her at a steady rate.

"Bree? There's no one there," I told her firmly. "It's just a disembodied phallus, without reasons of its own or thoughts about you. There is nothing there. Nothing to hate. Nothing to fear. Focus on my voice. Focus on the sensation in your vagina. There is nothing else in the world. The body fucking you is just an object. It doesn't mean what you think. It doesn't mean anything at all."

A violent tremor passed through Bree's body. She moaned, sounding conflicted or maybe just confused.

"There's no one there," I repeated, like mantra. "You. Me. Sensation. There's nothing else. It's just an object."

Bree moaned louder and seized up, panting as that thick cock plowed her into an orgasm. She made several adorable squeaking noises and twitched as she came. Eventually, her pleasure-wracked body slackened, shuddering, and my hopes were dashed as she started sobbing.

"It's okay, it's _okay_ , Bree," I said, wrestling my tone into something soothing. "Focus on the sensations. There's nothing else in the world. That dick is just an object. It doesn't mean—"

I cut myself off as Bree let out an ecstatic moan, tenseness fading into relaxed bliss all at once as she finally stopped rebelling against her body. The gorgeously masculine monster continued to fuck her. Bree was delicate and cute and helplessly eager, while the horrorspawn was big, sleek, and monstrously beautiful as he fucked her inexperienced pussy with an implacable persistence.

A surge of arousal at the sight joined my unthinking thrill of accomplishment, and for a moment I almost believed I'd gotten through to her.

"And that'll be the pain centers in her brain shutting down," Black Swan commented, watching me with an abstracted expression. "It won't affect her soul, if you were wondering. He just has to feed on something else while her neurons unscramble."

Like Bree's panic and resistance. Of course. With a sigh, I let my head fall back against the floor as that clarifying detail clicked into place. So that was what she meant when she said magical girls were renewable. One magical girl was almost an infinite supply of nourishment for these things, while they could only feed on a human once.

Feeling useless, I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over, even though I knew this would only be the first of many.

* * *

 _May 28th, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

I blinked dizzily as a sexy alien figure loomed over me, my body still twitching with aftershocks from the latest mind-rending fuck I'd experienced at the mercy of his minions.

"Hhh. This one's uterine adaptation has progressed to optimal levels," the creature I took to be Vreth, said. He leaned down to feel across my belly with his tentacles. "Yes. Her impregnation is complete. She is ready."

Impregnation? I was a magical girl. I couldn't get pregnant. Sluggishly, I opened my magical senses, but I flinched at the chaotic feedback from my surroundings and the senses slipped away.

"Take her to the pool," Vreth ordered.

One of Vreth's silent, seemingly interchangeable minions scooped me up in a four-armed bridal carry. I closed my eyes and snuggled into his sexy grayish purple chest. I was too wrung out to do anything else, and Bree didn't even look up to watch me go.

The radiance of the Horror beat against my skin like a cold sun, but it didn't hurt. In fact, something in my guts seemed to like it a lot.

I forced myself to concentrate, turning my magical senses on myself. I focused in on my womb, forcing my way through the noise. And I saw. Hundreds of foreign embryos lurked within, swimming in a soup of failed gametes. None of it belonged to me.

That was how I could be pregnant. I was merely a surrogate. Both halves of the sex cell came from the horrorspawn. Two penises, always alternated. Maybe each penis delivered one of the halves, and this was how they bred.

A flush came over me, under the light of the Elder Brain, as that light started to feel agonizingly wonderful. The embryos in my womb started wriggling and dividing, drinking in the light through my skin and letting off pulses of pure carnal pleasure that had me squirming in the arms that held me.

We descended, and I lifted my head to look around as the soft slosh of liquid grew louder.

A resin bridge, one of many, arched over the crevice between the blazing lake and the outer slope. Brilliantly glowing brain matter breached the surface like islands in placid sea, while sinuous shadows swam beneath the surface. Above, the conical web of flesh, tendon, and resin supports was as big as a skyscraper. It teemed with activity, hidden in shadow with the glare of the lake obscuring everything inside.

Outside, long strands dangled down to the surface of the lake. One dangled close enough to the bony shore to see clearly, and I stiffened. A naked human man hung from his feet at the end of the strand, with his head submerged in the lake fluid. His hands were glued together behind his back, but he didn't seem to be struggling, or drowning. He just hung there, twitching slightly. There was something wrong with the man's face. A dark, writhing mass churned beneath the surface, like... like tentacles.

I tried to shake a little more clarity back into myself and looked harder.

The other strands all had something vaguely the size and shape of a human man, hanging upside-down into the lake, but some of them... weren't human. Some of them were turning grayish purple, with extra appendages.

The human men, Olandra's thralls. They were being used as raw materials to make more of Vreth's minions. The one carrying me right now probably came to be the same way. Was there anything left of the man he'd been? It didn't seem like it.

I let my head fall against his sexy chest, a knot of worry forming in my gut. I didn't see Martin, but that was a small comfort. This was bigger than Martin. And I still didn't have anything resembling a plan.

Fuck! I should've killed Olandra when I had the chance. Now that I'd seen this, there was no way they'd let me near her. Whatever her death-curse did, it couldn't be worse than... what had Black Swan called it? Ceremorphosis.

We reached the shore and the mute horrorspawn turned, carrying me along the edge of the water, if it was even water. It didn't smell like water. This close, the radiance soaked into me, inflaming my body as waves of liquid pleasure pulsed out from my womb and left me panting.

A series of fleshy spires stood on the shore, ringing the entire lake. Up close, I saw that the things I'd taken for part of the landscape were actually individual creatures, like fat blobby worms. A grayish purple segmented body sat upright on a base of four thick tentacles, exposing a paler sack of almost human-colored flesh set in its underside. It tapered into a thick tubular ring-mouth which it had curled down towards the flesh sack.

I blinked. No. Holy fuck. That was a girl.

Now that I knew what I was seeing, each of the bulbous worms had a heavily pregnant magical girl embedded in its body. Those ridges, those were arms glued up against the worm's body, and that was the girl's neck that its thick tube-mouth was sucking on, with her head completely engulfed. Only her breasts, her distended belly, and her red, swollen pussy were visible.

Vreth's minion carried me past several more girls in the same condition. One of them spasmed visibly, and a glowing green ball of flesh emerged from her vagina while I watched. Like a fist-sized, four-finned tadpole, it rolled down the worm's body and splashed into the lake.

I shuddered as a needy throb raced through my own pussy, and I couldn't stop my hand from slipping between my thighs. The radiance made my womb ache with arousal, and even as I stared at my revealed fate with a sick fascination, my fingers obeyed my pussy's urgent demands and plunged inside.

I moaned into the horrorspawn's chest, fucking myself with two fingers as he carried me on. Rippling shudders of pleasure drove me to reach deeper. I shoved my wrist down into my thigh gap and rammed my finger into myself as hard as I could, stroking hard against my walls as I put pressure on my clit.

I convulsed, cumming as I twitched in his arms, but the orgasm did nothing to quench my building need. I squirmed, trying to get more stimulation, but strong clawed hands dragged my hands away from my crotch. I let out a frustrated whine and wrestled against the horrorspawn's grip, mindlessly trying to keep touching myself.

His tail curved around and flattened against the back of my neck. Stinging jolts raced into my body, and all the strength left my muscles. My body fell limp in his arms, flopping weakly as he brought me to my very own worm creature.

His facepits flashed, and the worm creature stirred. It's thick tube-mouth descended, toothless and fleshy, towards my face. Vreth's minion lifted me, and the worm's mouth opened wider, stretching as it's slick heat engulfed my bare scalp. It steadily swallowed my head and slid down over my face, sealing me in silent darkness as it smothered my eyes and ears. I sucked in a last breath before it oozed down over my nose and mouth, contracting to seal around my neck.

I shivered, and my heart thundered in the silence. I wasn't afraid of suffocating. Not anymore. But without sight or sound or calming breaths, the demanding ache between my legs became unbearable.

I felt the worm lift me up out of the minion's arms, hanging me by my head. My back thumped against warm flesh, and I felt something drag my arms straight up above me. Thick slime oozed over my hands and down my arms, hardening to glue me in place. My legs remained free until a pair of hands took each leg, bending my knees as they pushed my legs up and apart. Folds of hot, heavy flesh curled forward on either side of me to swallow my folded legs, slime hardening around my thighs.

My lungs began to burn, but I was so desperately aroused that the sensation was almost pleasant.

Flesh slid upwards over my face, and I gasped for breath regardless. The worm's thick tube-mouth slurped off of my head, leaving me to blink clear slime out of my eyes while it curled forward in front of me. A thinner, translucent tube emerged from its mouth like a tongue, and I shuddered with a terrible surge of hope as it approached my groin.

The tongue-tube pressed against my entrance, and my gushing hole yielded instantly. A shrill, gasping moan tore out of my throat as its wriggling girth slithered into me, filling me all the way to my deepest depth.

It stopped there, thick and alive in my throbbing tunnel, and latched on to my cervix. A dull stabbing pain lanced through my guts, and I flinched, but I could see enough with my magical senses to know what was happening. The tube had opened my cervical barrier, and now it was swelling, thickening, as it began to pump a nutrient-rich highly oxygenated fluid directly into my womb.

A wide bulge of the fluid raced down the tube-tongue fast enough to slam through my pussy in an instant, ballooning my lubricious walls around it before spraying into my womb in a rush. Rippling echoes of explosive ecstasy cascaded out along my nerves, leaving me stunned at the sudden fullness. A second bulge followed the first, punching through my vaginal canal in a burst of ecstatic swelling. A third bulge slammed into me, then a fourth.

I came, exploding into an orgasm so intense my vision whited out, writhing and shaking as a continuing stream of those bulges traveled into my spasming pussy. More and more, on and on, cumming until my womb started to hurt and my belly had swollen to obscene proportions.

Finally, it stopped. The worm withdrew its tube-tongue thing, leaving my pussy empty and twitching while my distended stomach hurt with every jiggle.

The worm's mouth descended on my head again, sheathing my face in smothering flesh. Minutes passed as I recovered and the pain dulled in the face of the pleasure of the ever-present radiance, then more minutes passed, and my lungs still didn't burn.

Within me, the embryos were feeding oxygen into my blood through a not-quite-umbilical setup. They were growing fast, faster than anything should be able to grow.

Hours passed, and I ached for something to fuck me again. My pussy dripped, begging for attention, but went untended. Within me, I watched as the familiar dividing cells were overtaken by cancerous chaos. Soon, the chaos was overtaken by something that was to cancer what cancer was to normal cells. After that, I lost all detail and sensed only noise.

* * *

 _June 1st, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

Endlessly, deprived of my primary senses while my body gave birth to the enemy, subsumed in orgasmic torment, I existed, floating in a daze of overpowering carnal intensity.

Until, all at once, I snapped back to awareness. For a moment I was lost, not knowing where I was. In the next instant I was hit once more by the heat and the screaming need for something, anything, to touch my boiling cunt, but I was blind, deaf, and helpless. A heavy, squirming weight dropped in my belly. My womb opened into my quivering vagina with a lurch of alien pleasure and a thick, solid warmth wriggled down my throbbing fuck tunnel and drove me into body-shaking orgasmic convulsions. It squeezed out of me with an orgasmic jolt, leaving my pussy to clench, empty, as the white-hot pleasure surging through me stagnated, sank in, and _burned_.

Ruined orgasm after ruined orgasm. I'd lost track of how many I'd endured before the screaming need and the need to scream had filled me to bursting. I couldn't scream. I couldn't even breathe. I was smothered. I couldn't see and I couldn't hear anything but the thundering of my own heart.

But I was lucid. And I remembered. The mental block was gone.

_Unafraid of rape, nor beholden to love. Thank you, Kale._

I was the Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve, and I was back in business. With my magic restored, it was only matter of time.


	12. CAMERON

_June 3rd, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

_Scanner Pulse._ My lips formed the words within the slick confines of the smothering sheath that was the giant worm creature's throat flesh. My fifth spell, invented laboriously in the scarce moments of clear thought in between dazed spans of stewing in unbearable sexual need.

In a strobe-flash, information poured into my mind, giving me a snapshot of every living thing in a ten mile radius. Most of it was incomprehensible noise wrapped in dead nothingness, but I was getting better at sifting through the eldritch fleshscape to identify the other captive magical girls, the handful of fey, and the slowly dwindling population of enthralled men.

The glimpse of my surroundings also kept me grounded, countering the disorienting effects of prolonged sensory deprivation. It made it easier to think around the flushed, throbbing, achingly desperate emptiness at the apex of my body.

What did I have to work with?

Hypnotic Dream had to die first. Even if her death didn't restore arias to all the other girls, she was the linchpin in their entire security scheme. Vreth might've had some degree of telepathic coordination with his minions, too, so I had to assume an alarm would go up at the first encounter. Black Swan had a power artifact that gave her invisibility. Could I lure her into a fight and steal it for myself?

Escaping from my living bondage was its own problem. I remembered facepits flashing at the worm creature. It hadn't responded without prompting, so it probably wouldn't alert anyone by itself if I did escape. But merely mouthing the words to my aria wasn't sufficient to trigger my transformation. I only had enough air left in my lungs to squeeze out a half-dozen syllables, at most. I was still stuck until I could get my head out of the worm creature's constricting throat.

Even if I managed to get another breath and transform, I also didn't have any good ideas for freeing the _other_ magical girls from _their_ worm creatures. _If_ my Cleansing Aura affected the mental blocks, there was a slim possibility that I could get to all the other magical girls before I was noticed, but...

A sudden, familiar lurch in my distended belly scattered the thought. A four-finned eldritch tadpole detached from the mass in my womb and wriggled its squishy way out into my vagina. I quivered from the sharp jolts of agonizing pleasure, unable to moan or move as the bulge of squirming flesh fucked my wanton sex hole from the wrong end.

It slurped through, stretching and filling my pussy, sparking ecstatic spasms as it oozed down my juicing birth canal in a hot flood. I thrashed, cumming, as the eldritch tadpole popped out of me and left me convulsing on nothing, rekindling the ever-present burn of a ruined orgasm.

No outlet, no escape, just agonizing unfulfillment.

After a short eternity, I managed to hold a thought together for fifteen seconds, and my lips formed the words, _Scanner Pulse._

The strobe-flash of my surroundings helped center me, but it didn't actually do anything about the demanding ache in my loins. I aligned another Scanner Pulse, forcing myself to pay attention to what it showed me.

A fey, in mid-stride towards me along the shore of the brain lake. Her simplistic physiology stood out like an island of calm in a sea of chaos, except for her ankles, which had lingering striations of healing damage.

No way. They couldn't possibly be that stupid.

I felt her proximity on my skin, without using any magical senses. A puff of breath tingled across my vulva. After a moment of tense anticipation, I failed to yelp as something cold and unyielding invaded my ass. A blunt, conical shape that stretched me wider and wider as it slid in, before it rounded down to a narrow stem, lodging itself inside me.

Olandra tapped on the base of the steel buttplug, sending a spasm of need through my pelvis. I tried _not_ to brace myself for anything in particular. I had no idea what she was trying to do, or why she was doing it now. I felt a touch on the flushed lips of my slippery vulva, gliding towards my throbbing clit. I twitched helplessly as a fingertip pressed down and the electric sensation bolted up my nerves.

Without warning, those fingertips _strummed_ , hard and fast, over my clit. False colors burst across my eyelids and my body seized up in ecstasy as a viciously powerful orgasm tore through me to glorious effect. A hard shove against the base of the buttplug caught my violently clenching vagina between two opposing forces, my mana suddenly aligned with the steel in my ass, and something inside me wrenched _loose_.

Olandra's hands went away, leaving me to shake with the ongoing shocks of fading orgasm as a flood of nutrient slime gushed from my pussy. I felt my belly shrink noticeably, and the carnal heat in my womb dulled. A note of confusion rose up through the euphoria. The buttplug used my mana? To... purge my womb? Sort of? What?

I waited for Olandra to do something else, but nothing happened. Nothing except that my lungs, slowly, began to burn. I tried to suck in a reflexive breath, but of course I couldn't. But the worm creature sensed my distress, and its mouth began to slide upwards, exposing my face.

Air. I sucked in a shaky breath. My chest twinged, inflating for the first time in days. The tube-mouth cleared my scalp, and I tried to focus my eyes on the blur in front of me, blinking furiously.

"So sorry to interrupt your new life," Olandra's voice said, sneering. "Do you like your new home? Is it comfy?"

"S-so comfy," I croaked, forcing a smile onto my face, "but the view could better."

The blow came out of nowhere, stinging across my cheek and snapping my head to the side as Olandra let out a frustrated snarl. I shook myself and tried to get my eyes to focus again.

"We'll see if you're so glib when you're watching your mortal lover die," Olandra hissed, turning to point. "Look. It's dear Martin's turn."

"You do realize I'm blind right now," I said.

Olandra's blurry lavender form spun around. "What?! Damn it all, no!" She loomed close, her face inches from mine as she wailed, "Why can't I make you cry?!"

My reply was simple. I snapped my head forward, smashing my forehead into her nose and mouth with a wet crunch. She reeled backwards and fell half into the lake, clutching her face.

I smiled grimly. "Because you can't get it through your thick skull that I'm unafraid of rape, nor beholden to love, and I will not be diverted from this, the one true cause. Every enemy of lust shall beware, Erocentric Avenger Rousing Salve!"

Prismatic auroras rippled across my skin, shredding the resin from my arms and slicing my legs free from the worm's flesh as my raiment built itself out of kaleidoscopic reflections. A massive stab of agony lanced through my guts as I slipped down the front of the worm's body in a trickle of green blood. My raiment's corset forced itself onto me, brutally crushing my abdomen down to size. A chunky slurry of viscera and blood _sprayed_ out of my cunt.

I collapsed by Olandra's legs, grimacing. That was unpleasant. My raiment finished settling into place, and I healed myself with a thought. My stomach rippled and tightened before the pain stopped entirely, and the last drips of blood failed to stick to me. Hair sprouted from my scalp, arranging itself according to my Style.

Olandra stared at me, one hand clutching her ruined nose, as my vision cleared and my hair finished regrowing. Her eyes bulged, her face a mask of pure horror. I moved before she could react.

I slammed into her, grabbing onto her neck. I cast a shield under her head and slammed her down into it, bashing her head over and over. She struggled, clawing at my face and breasts, missing as often as she landed a blow. I shoved her down and started throwing punches into her face, until she was dazed enough that she couldn't dodge when I got my feet under me, leaped straight up, and came down on her head with the entire force of my leap.

Her skull burst apart under my boots, and the rest of Olandra's body twitched one last time before falling still. Her flesh turned clear and began to melt. Fucking hell, that was satisfying.

I dispelled the shield and dropped back against the worm creature's bulk, ducking down between the splayed tips of its entwined tentacle legs. No cry went up. Whatever curse now afflicted her former thralls must've been subtle. Reaching between my legs, I tugged on the base of Olandra's likely-magical buttplug until it popped out of me. It was a shiny silver, like chrome, with a sparkling white gemstone set in its bottom end. It was pretty, but it was probably also evil in some way.

"C-Cameron!" a familiar voice echoed over the lake. My head snapped up. Martin! "Cameron! Help!"

Out over the lake, one of the dangling naked men was bent double, struggling frantically to keep his head out of the water. Grayish purple tentacles poked out of the water, wiggling and grasping at Martin's thrashing head. The mature forms of the tadpoles were more elongated and sinuous, nearly two feet long. Martin twisted out of the way as one leaped clear out of the water and nearly managed to grab on before it fell back into the lake.

I stored the buttplug in my Pocket, vanishing it through a seam in the air, and launched myself out of my hiding spot. I threw the largest shield that could fit between Martin and the horrorspawn parasites. The hexagonal plane snapped into place with a rippling thrum, supporting Martin's shoulders, as I leaped from the shore and cast more shields under me to form a path over the water.

Martin yelped, and my heart skipped. One of the tentacle things was caught on the wrong side of the shield, right next to Martin. It dragged itself towards him, oozing bonelessly across the glimmering surface.

" _Emerald Bliss!_ " I raised my arm and punched. My orb hit the resin strand and exploded, slicing through it in a burst of emerald brilliance.

Martin dropped the rest of the way onto my shield and rolled away, narrowly evading the tentacled parasite's grasp, but his feet were still glued together, and his hands were still glued behind his back. The parasite bunched up for another lunge.

I launched another orb, but it missed. The emerald streak deflected off my shield and rocketed off towards the opposite shore, and I had to dispel it before it hit. The tentacle thing snagged Martin's hair and reeled itself in. His scream of terror cut off as it latched onto his face, leaving him to thrash in silence.

At a flat sprint, I finally reached him and skidded to a stop. I slapped one hand down on his chest, casting Perfect Incarnation, while I tried to pry the tentacle thing off his face with my other. It wouldn't budge.

"Damn _it_ ," I cried, watching with my magical senses as tendrils of alien nerve tissue burrowed into Martin's brain through his nose and eyes. I could feel my healing spell holding back the damage, slowing the parasite's progress, but it was still advancing. I couldn't _stop_ healing him for even a second, or I'd lose him.

We were way too exposed, out on the lake. A minion could spot us at any moment, and I couldn't risk my Cleansing Aura where the Horror might feel it.

I scooped Martin up and raced back to shore on a path of shield spells. Sliding by the worm creatures, I dropped into the crevice between the lake and the outer slope just before one of Vreth's minions came walking along the shore. Holding Martin on my lap, I kicked into the crease to slide us backwards until we were hidden underneath one of the resin bridges.

I let out a breath, relieved.

"Martin," I whispered. "Can you hear me?"

He nodded, trembling.

"Okay," I said softly. "Just hang on. I'll figure this out."

Carefully, I covered him with my Cleansing Aura. It combined with Perfect Incarnation, interacting to produce effects neither spell was capable of alone. I still wasn't sure why, but the synergy was very powerful. In this case, it caused macroscopic portions of alien tissue to simply vanish from within Martin's brain.

Every muscle in Martin's body locked up at once, and he started seizing. I yanked my Cleansing Aura in, heart pounding. The seizure stopped.

"Fuck!" I hissed. "Are you okay?"

Martin nodded again, shaky.

"I think that was working," I said. "Do you want me to try again?"

Martin shuddered, then, after a moment, he nodded again.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed my Cleansing Aura out again. Martin seized, agony lighting up his nerves, and I held him tight while my combined spells forced his own brain tissue to squeeze the alien brain tissue out into the extradimensional void.

The tentacle thing started to sink into Martin's face, and bits of Martin's own brain tissue began following the alien tissue into the void.

"Fuck!" I shut off both spells on reflex. "Fuck! Martin?"

Without my interference, the parasite began to encroach again, but differently than before. Slower, and more spread out. I was starting to lose detail, like my senses were pulling out of focus, somehow. Martin went slack in my arms, unresponsive.

"Martin!" I shook him. "Martin!" I tried to cast Perfect Incarnation again, but the spell _wouldn't target him_. "Damn it, Martin!"

I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath. That was it, then. Gently, I moved Martin off my lap and wedged him into the crevice, legs straight and bound arms beneath him. I turned away, and looked up at the organic superstructure overhead.

A few castings of Scanner Pulse revealed hundreds of minions moving within. Black Swan and Hypnotic Dream were up there too, along with several dozen unconscious human men. Men who could wake up free at any moment now that Olandra was dead. One more ticking clock. Nineteen of the big worm creatures had an impregnated magical girl securely bound to them. Including me, that made an even twenty. Six more captive magical girls were currently up in the alcoves, with minions fucking them. One of those was Bree, identified as the odd one out by her only partially adapted womb.

"Prioritize," I whispered to myself. "What can I do without alerting them? What gets harder after they're alerted?"

I looked towards the Elder Brain, staring into the fleshy wall in front of me. My gaze traveled upwards to where my worm creature would be. Before I could answer either question, I needed to know how my spells interacted with their countermeasures. I needed a test subject.

* * *

The low gravity made it easy to skim along on all-fours. I slid into cover under the next resin bridge, leaped, and caught a hardened support strand. I pulled myself up against the underside of the bridge and sent out a Scanner Pulse.

A pair of four-armed tentacle-faced horrorspawn descended the slope towards the lake. One of them carried an impregnated magical girl in his arms. They walked right over my hiding spot, but I didn't dare ambush them. I waited for them to cross to the bridge and turn left.

Once they were far enough away, I swung myself up onto the bridge and hurried onto the bony shore, moving in the opposite direction. I dashed from worm creature to worm creature until I came to an occupied one, darting beneath it's bulk where I was hidden from most lines of sight but fully illuminated by the Elder Brain's radiance.

I looked around, wary, but it seemed like I was still safe.

Something hot and slimy bounced off my head and oozed down my shoulder. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but managed to bite off a startled yelp. I snatched the tadpole off my back and tossed it into the lake.

Above me, a swollen, drooling vulva twitched and quivered. I couldn't see much of the girl it belonged to. Her distended belly was smaller than it could've been, but it still resembled a bulbous sack more than a person's abdomen, and obscured the rest of her.

I pushed my Cleansing Aura out. She twitched harder, which I hoped was a good sign. I reached up and touched her belly, casting Perfect Incarnation. Combined, the two spells purged her body of all alien matter and her belly shrank under my hand, revealing a pair of perky breasts on well-defined muscles, bronzed by a rich tan.

The drain on my mana suddenly lessened, as the healing finished. I pulled away, ducked down, and waited. The restored magical girl convulsed, once, and the worm's tube-mouth released her neck, sliding upwards to expose her head and regrown hair. She inhaled raggedly.

"Hey!" I whispered, trying to get her attention.

Her eyes rolled at random and she moaned mindlessly as her head flopped from side to side. I tried to get her attention again, but she didn't notice. This much already confirmed that my healing was good enough to undo all the physical effects, and get the worms to spit heads out, but I also needed to know if her mental block was gone.

"Come on, hey!" I called quietly. "Your aria. Chant your aria!"

She didn't seem to hear me or get any more lucid, but she did get louder. Well, I already knew transforming would rip her free of the worm. I didn't need to test that part. I had a backup plan for freeing her from the worm, but it was messy and probably even more likely to draw attention than her delirious moaning.

Instead, I merged Emerald Bliss into its dildo form and leaped up to clap my hand over the tan magical girl's mouth. Hanging there, I guided Emerald Bliss to her crotch and slowly drove it into her pussy while I made sure I had a good grip on her face. I charged Emerald Bliss with mana, forcing her to orgasm, and she screamed into my hand, going into convulsions.

After thirty seconds she passed out completely. I stopped and withdrew Emerald Bliss, shifting it back into orbs. Then I hauled back and slapped the tan magical girl across her face.

"Guh!" she gasped, jolting awake and sucking down long, ragged breaths. "Whu? Hoo?"

"Hey. Can you hear me? Can you understand me?" I asked, leaning in. "What's your name?"

Her eyes snapped into focus. She jerked forward, smashing her lips into mine and spearing her tongue into my mouth with a needy whine. I let her kiss me for a few seconds, but after that I forced myself to pull away. She strained to maintain contact, and jerked back with a gasp when she couldn't. I felt like a wretched prude, even though my rational mind knew damn well that we didn't have time to make out.

"Your name," I breathed. "What's your name?"

"I'm," she panted. "K-Katie. I'm Katie."

"Hi, Katie," I said. "I'm Cameron. Can you transform?"

"I..." Katie's face lit up. "It's back! I can remember! Awaken, wrath of the Indomitable mountain's Champion! Come, the earthen Quakestrider!"

Her resin bonds split and fractured as aurora light drew a raiment of thin white silk and gold bangles over her body. The worm's hold on her legs broke, revealing lace-up leather boots, as she slipped free and we both went sliding down onto the shore, almost falling into the lake.

Katie landed on top of me with her face in my bare cord-wrapped breasts. She lifted her head and stared at me, still flushed. I could feel her grinding her crotch on my shiny clad thigh.

Before either of us could get distracted, I heaved upwards, throwing her off me. I flipped up to my feet, caught her in my arms, and threw us both away from the lake. Katie twisted out of my grasp and landed beside me in the crevice at the bottom of the outer slope. I ducked under the resin bridge. She followed my lead, leaning heavily on the inner wall.

"I'm sorry," Katie panted. "I can't focus. I didn't mean to... It's like, I can't control myself."

"It's okay," I said quietly. I tipped myself up to lean next to her and pulled her into a hug. "You can touch me. It's fine. How long have you been here?"

Katie shuddered and clung to me, rubbing up against me. Her raiment left a lot of skin bare. Her tight boots and plurality of belts were sturdy leather, with a matching short vest and cowboy hat, but her gold-fastened chest wrap and skirt were airy white and silken. The skirt was really more of a loin-cloth, I noticed. It draped below her knees in front but didn't do anything to cover her legs.

Her hands settled on my butt and squeezed, pulling me tighter against her. "I... I don't know... It goes in cycles. I've been through a few... Uhhh! All I can think about right now is _fucking_. Gods. I hope you have a plan, because I..." She shook her head even as she pressed me against the fleshy wall and ground her silk-wrapped crotch on my leg. "I... did you... I remember feeling... hard, thick... It was so good..."

I flexed my leg, giving her a better surface to hump. She moaned and shuddered, dragging her hands over my chest to grope my breasts. We really didn't have time for this, but I couldn't make myself deny her either.

I hovered all four orbs of Emerald Bliss up next to us, and fused it into phallic mode. "My weapon, doubles as a dildo."

Katie let out a whine of pure want, but she had enough self-control not to dispel her raiment over it. I shifted it back into orbs before she could change her mind. Katie kissed me, plundering my mouth with her tongue while one of her hands abandoned my breast, sliding down over my corset to discover bare skin and unrestricted access to my wet pussy.

"That's so kinky," Katie whimpered. Her fingers slipped between my folds, striking sparks of pleasure from my clit. "You're all lewd and stuff, that's so _hot_. And, not," two fingers plunged into me, hard, " _fair_."

I bent the leg she was humping, lifting it harder between her legs, and tried not to get caught up in the pleasure. "It's ki-ind of my thing. Listen, you pro- _oo_ ved I can free the impregnated girls, and defea- _eat!_ Defeat Hypnotic Dream's psychic blocks. I wa-ant to gather as ma-any as we can without being no- _oh_ -noticed, then assassinate her and the other Ebon Mint gir- _uu_ rl!"

"Yes," kiss, "good," kiss, "let's do that." Katie bucked against my thigh and climaxed messily, moaning into my mouth.

"Yeah," I said, petting her as she calmed. "This might get unmanageable if all the other girls react like you did, though."

* * *

 _June 3rd, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

The next magical girl didn't react at all like Katie had.

As soon as her flushed face emerged from the worm creature's tube-mouth, her regrown hair plastered to her head, she lurched forward and retched. After a few dry heaves, she burst into tears and refused to lift her head.

"Hey," I said, peering up into her face. "We're getting out of here. You can transform. Remember your aria. Come on, you have to transform."

The crying magical girl only cried harder. Her broken sobs were soft and quiet, and I doubted slapping her would help. She wasn't hysterical or delirious. She'd just given up. I tried to talk her into transforming, but she refused to respond.

Messy back-up plan it was. I hauled myself up until I was level with her, and cast Inviolate Stand. The worm creature twitched as my hand sliced into the hardened resin between the flaps of flesh containing the magical girl's legs. Viridescent blood spilled as alien flesh tore, but I did my best to keep the damage limited to the resin itself.

The crying magical girl choked on a scream of agony as I accidentally broke her knee. With a wince, I stopped digging into the resin and healed her. Even after that, she didn't say anything or do more than quietly cry.

Eventually I got her free without doing _that_ much more damage to the worm creature than her transformation would've. I threw her over my shoulder and leaped down into the crevice. Her arms and legs were still encased in resin, but that wasn't really a problem now that she wasn't attached to the worm creature.

Katie helped me stash the crying girl under a resin bridge. "Is she...? It didn't work?"

"I can't get her to try," I admitted. "I had to cut her free myself."

The unnamed girl tried to curl up in the crevice, but the pose was awkward with her arms locked straight. She didn't seem to care. Her wet eyes were open, and focused, but she just stared blankly at her encased knees.

"Go on," Katie said, crouching down next to her. "Get the next one. I'll see if I can get through to her."

"Okay," I said, sending out a Scanner Pulse. I picked my next target.

* * *

Three more rescued magical girls later, and Katie was still the only one who was lucid. Two of them cried like the first, but without the retching, while this latest one just stared at me and looked so utterly lost. I passed her to Katie and slumped down against the slope side of the crevice.

"I think they've been here a lot longer than we have," Katie suggested, peeling the lost girl's long scarlet hair off her face. "Hi, sweetie. What's your name. Can you tell me your name? I'm Katie. The Quakestrider. What about you?"

The lost girl just stared at her, looking lost. Katie and I both sighed. This wasn't working. So far we were four to two on dead weight.

"I'll try one more," I told Katie. "If the next one isn't any better than last ones, I'm not going to wait any longer to sneak up there and murder the Ebon Mint girls. We're going to get noticed sooner or later, and we're already pushing our luck."

"Alright," Katie said. "Let's go."

I sent out a Scanner Pulse to make sure I was clear, and dashed out from under the bridge. Leaping up, I swung myself onto the bony shore and slid to a stop against the looming worm creature. I climbed quickly to reach the bound magical girl, and combo-healed her.

Her distended belly tightened and shrunk, smoothly returning her body to a pristine and healthy state. Once the healing finished, I pulled back and waited. The worm creature felt her need for air, and slowly oozed upwards to release her head.

The instant her mouth cleared the fleshy tube, she sucked in a breath and bellowed, "You vile beasts will die for defiling me! Take your filthy sinful hands off—fphhmph!"

I leaped up and slapped my hand down over the screaming girl's mouth, my heart in my throat as her voice carried out over the lake. She squirmed free of the retreating fleshy tube, revealing blue eyes and bright blonde hair. She looked at me and froze, but a moment later her gaze fell to my bare cord-wrapped breasts.

"Mphnnphrrr!" she snarled, and bit my hand.

"Shut up! Ow!" I healed myself. Perfect Incarnation fought the strength of her jaw to keep my hand intact. "Stop that! And shut up! They'll hear!"

Blondie bit harder. "Rrrrmphrrrphr!"

"I gave you back your transformation aria!" I hissed. "Just be quiet and I'll let go!"

She froze. With a sigh of relief, I yanked my hand from between her teeth and slid back down to the ground. She glared at me with the kind of seething hatred that was usually reserved for child slavers, people who talked at the theater, and people who pretentiously rendered porn in grayscale before posting it on tumblr.

"Why should I believe you'd betray your masters, skank?" the blonde snarled.

What. " _Betray my_ —what the fuck are you—look! We don't have time for this. Just transform and go hide in the crevice with the others!"

"I obey no one and nothing but the Lord, you filthy whore!" she spat at me, loudly. "Bathe in the cleansing flames of righteous damnation! You will burn for your sins at the blade of Virtuous Swordmaiden Searing Revelation!"

Aurora light seared the resin off her limbs, as a white robe reflected itself onto her body, cinched with silvery ropes. Silvery armor plates appeared on her wrists, shoulders, hips, and ankles. She wrenched herself free of the worm and fell, dropping to one knee as she landed.

"Disgusting, befouled, we've been made impure," Searing Revelation said, breathing harshly. Her head snapped up and she fixed her glare on me. "I will grant the mercy of my blade to those you have defiled."

With a scream, Searing Revelation flung one hand towards me and a narrow jet of fire poured from her fingers. I threw a shield up in front of me, intercepting the flames with inches to spare. The fire splashed outward from the point of impact, harmless, as I scowled in irritation. This idiot was going to get us all caught.

Quickly judging the distance, I cast a second shield right up against her hand. Searing Revelation yelped in surprise as her flamethrower spell splashed against my shield at point-blank range, bouncing curls of fire back into her face.

Dispelling my shields, I lunged forward through the dying embers as she staggered backwards, blind. I drove my fist into her face, stunning her and throwing her off her feet. Following her to the ground, I cast Inviolate Stand and wrapped my hands around her neck.

Reading her body with my magical senses, I carefully pressed with my thumb and cut off the blood-flow to her brain. It would've been so easy to accidentally rip her head from her shoulders. I couldn't even feel her struggles through my spell. But I ignored the temptation _and_ the sensation that my hands were empty, locking my muscles so I wouldn't even twitch. Her eyes rolled up into her head as her struggling weakened.

For a moment, there was only the slosh of the lake and the sound of my breathing. Then there was only agony.

I screamed at the sudden overwhelming pain, jolting violently. My hands sheared through Searing Revelation's spine, splattering crimson blood all over me. My legs tore viridescent trenches in the bony shore until Inviolate Stand failed, and my flailing finally propelled me out of the line of fire.

Gasping, I sighted one of the stupidly sexy tentacle-faced minions a ways down the shore. It's facepits glowed, and twin beams of sickly green light wrought agony through my arm in the split second before I got a shield up.

"Shit!" I hissed out through clenched teeth.

I rolled behind the worm creature and dove back into the crevice. Rolling to my feet, I ran for the bridge. Katie's eyes went wide when she saw me.

"Go! Go now! We've been made!" I shouted as I approached.

"Shit!" Katie yelped. "You get the Psychic! I'll play distraction! _Fray Breaker!_ "

Katie held out her hands as a handheld four-barreled miniature steampunk gatling gun appeared in front of her. The rotating barrel assembly hung between loops of wood and steel, with twin pistol grips mounted on either side like a delta wing. Grabbing the handgrips, Katie pulled. The barrel locked, the loops clunked and flipped around, and with a clank the weapon split into two separate twin-barreled pistols.

That was all I saw before I blew past her, kicking on my hoverskates and accelerating as I switched from running to gliding along the surface of the slope. I pumped my legs, gathering speed as gun blasts went off behind me.

There were only three of the much larger and longer swooping resin bridges connecting the outer slope to the organic superstructure above, stretching from up by the alcoves all the way over the slope and lakeshore. Angling outward, I arced up the slope and out of the crevice, passing above the smaller bridges. Beams of sickly green light shot at me from behind, leaving glowing trails on the fleshy terrain as I did my best to juke without losing too much speed.

Suddenly, all sound cut out for half an instant, the air going blurry with a sustained pitchless note, a throbbing pulse of not-sound carried by the Horror's radiance to every corner of the vast cavern.

I reached one of the greater bridges, touching down with my hand as I skidded into a sharp turn. I came out of the turn going straight up the bridge, with the looming superstructure directly in front of me. I powered up the incline, losing less speed than I expected thanks to the low gravity.

The inverted organic superstructure teemed with new activity as horrorspawn responded to the alarm en mass. Greenish lights lit up all across the structure, a hundred eyeless faces all pointed my way. I deactivated my hoverskates and slammed a Planar Shield into place an instant before dozens of beam blasts lanced down at me. The wide, glimmering hexagon _crackled_ under the assault, but it held easily.

I peered through at the spots the attacks were coming from. There were a lot, but not too many if I was willing to risk not having enough mana to heal.

I started covering the holes, orifices, and organic windows with shield after shield, casting my hexagonal barriers at the distant targets. The assault on my nearer shield dwindled as the strain on my mana grew.

The last beam cut off, blocked at the source, and I dropped my cover shield to explode into motion. I wasn't at my limit, but holding that many shields in place brought me close to it. I raced up the bridge, kicking on my hoverskates again as the incline leveled out.

As I reached the end of the bridge, I saw a small group of four minions pressed up against the shield covering the entrance. I launched two orbs and dispelled that shield. The orb blasts blew three of them off their feet, killing the middle one, while I leaped into a dropkick that caved in the fourth minion's chest and sent his body sailing down the webbed corridor.

I spun, grabbed the first survivor by his trunk tentacle, and hurled him into the second, knocking them both out into empty air. They tumbled out of sight, falling into the lake far below.

I dispelled all my shields and cast a Scanner Pulse.

Two female human bodies stood out among the eldritch chaos. One was smaller and just now waking from sleep. The other was vitalized, aroused, and entwined with one of the patches of chaos. That put Hypnotic Dream about thirty feet away, above me and deeper inside the hive. Black Swan was further away, but she was closer to Hypnotic Dream than I was.

The architecture in front of me was surprisingly airy and open, with no right angles or hard edges. The framework sprawled like a skeletal fractal, webbed together with grayish purple skin to form surfaces at various angles such that the existence of passable floors seemed almost like an accident. A maze, easy to navigate, but a nightmare of possible ambushes if one didn't have a way to cheat.

I threw myself into a sprint and leaped from surface to surface, almost ignoring gravity as I ascended towards my target, counting the seconds in my head.

Another casting of Scanner Pulse revealed a pair of minions lurking ahead. I threw myself sideways, diverting around them. The spell also revealed both magical girls on their feet, caught in a moment of intonation.

I had fifteen seconds.

Skimming off a wide, slanted bit of webbing with a moment's use of my hoverskates, I spun out into the air above the pair of lurking minions. I sighted and punched. Two orbs shot down and detonated, splattering green blood everywhere. I cast a shield and kicked off, launching myself straight up through another gap in the webbing, and landed within sight of Hypnotic Dream.

"—in the space between thought and deed, as Subtle Ma—"

My orb took her in the gut, driving the breath out of her lungs and blasting her nude body across the space to slam into a piece of vertical webbing. I didn't dare give her an instant to recover, diving after her with a shield-braced leap. She was torn and bleeding, but not badly enough to keep her down.

I reached her and used Inviolate Stand to crush her skull.

Her eyeballs exploded as bone splintered off and gray bits sprayed out in every direction. Grimacing, I tossed what was left of her away and healed myself because that was faster than trying to catch my breath the normal way.

Movement. A building glow and ripple of pressure.

I whirled around and threw up a shield, intercepting a beam blast that was more powerful all by itself than dozens of the lesser minions combined. Vreth himself stood across the space, drilling into my shield with his face lasers.

Vreth's face tentacles writhed, agitated. He took a step forward and his beam blasts brightened, doubling the pressure on my shield, then doubling again. The strain on my mana increased alarmingly, but I was more worried about getting pinned down in one spot long enough to be surrounded.

I cast a Scanner Pulse, and a faint smirk stole its way onto my face. Or getting pinned down long enough for Black Swan to sneak up on me. To think, I'd planned on confronting her in a fair fight. This was much better than that.

Something cool and leathery wrapped around my hips, invisible, as it tightened and bit into my skin. Fixing my next move in my mind, I dropped my shield and cast Inviolate Stand. Screaming agony tore through me, erasing all awareness of my surroundings, but I was already moving, and my body kept moving.

Black Swan had tried to yank me out from behind my shield. Now she _was_ my shield. Suddenly visible, her scream of agony as Vreth's face lasers burned through her put mine to shame. Vreth cut the attack off immediately, but the damage was done. I had her.

Black Swan's bones cracked in my embrace, prehensile belts prying at my limbs. She had the the invisibility artifact halfway back into her Pocket before I could break her arm, but I managed to knock it free with an orb. I didn't dare to touch it myself while I had Inviolate Stand active.

"Release her," Vreth hissed, "or I will visit on you suffering unimaginable."

My back was to the wall, which was a good thing as Vreth's minions gathered all around us. I added a Planar Shield behind me just in case, glancing around and weighing my options. As soon as I killed her, they would attack, but for the moment it seemed that Vreth cared about Black Swan enough that he wasn't willing to go through her to get to me.

Faint, far below, I could hear the crack of gunfire. Katie was still free and fighting.

I looked at Vreth. "You were going to do that anyway."

I surrounded myself with shields in every direction, and crushed Black Swan to a bloody pulp.

* * *

 _August 10th, 2019_  
_Berkeley, California_  
_La Loma Park_

It was one of those rare nice days. Cloudy, but peaceful, with no wind and the ground still warm from yesterday's sun. I sat at the edge of a playground, holding my dad's digital camera and watching through the viewfinder display as my little sister pretended to swing from the monkey bars while riding on my dad's shoulders.

I snapped a picture, then set the camera down in my lap. Thumbing the controls, I paged back through the camera's memory, eyeballing the shot compositions. I was satisfied with most of my own shots, but of the pictures I was actually _in_ , I couldn't find even one I actually liked.

I frowned at the little boy on the display screen. Something about him being in the picture at all just looked _wrong_. I sighed and looked up.

My dad had his phone out. He turned to me and said, "Your mother just texted. She's bringing the car around. Why don't you go help her unload, Cam?"

I made a disgruntled whiny noise, but I got up and started walking towards the street all the same. I got to the curb and waited, eventually spotting the family four-door driving up the road.

It was dented. One headlight was crushed entirely, and the bumper wobbled, loose. I blinked and looked again. Yeah, that _was_ our car, and it _was_ damaged. I ran up to it as it parked, but I stopped in my tracks, confused, when I saw who was inside.

The door opened, and a girl only a little older than me got out. She looked weirdly familiar, but I was sure I didn't recognize her. Her face was hard with anger, but it shifted to recognition when she saw _me_.

"Cameron?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said cautiously. "Who're you?"

The strange girl screwed her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands. After a moment, I realized she was crying.

She dropped her hands and looked at me. She said some things that were obvious nonsense and then started crying again. My head hurt. I rubbed my own eyes, finding tears on my cheeks.

"That's all," the strange girl said. "I guess I really mostly came to say goodbye. There's something big coming. I don't want to go, but I have to and I don't think I'll be able to come back. Where's your sister?"

I pointed, still immensely confused. The strange girl darted forward and hugged me, confusing me even more.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry your mom won't be there for you, Cameron," she said. "But, you're going to be a fine man someday."

I squirmed free of her, suspicious. What was she talking about? She let me go, and suddenly looked over her shoulder, scowling.

"I deserve at least this much! Now shut it, or this'll take even longer," she grunted, seemingly at the car. "Cameron. I don't have long, but I want you to remember. Your mom is going to make you safe, okay? You're going to be safe, because your mom loves you very much. Remember that."

I nodded at the crazy girl and she darted off towards the playground.

* * *

 _June 3rd, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

I shrieked in pain at the cold-burning spur of agony stabbing through my head. Planar Shields vibrated and warbled on every side of me, as an assault of eldritch light pounded on my defenses.

The assault strained my mana to its limit, but I held my shields in place through sheer force of will, ignoring the pain that demanded I stop. With every second that passed, those shields fought harder and harder to dispel, but every second I endured was a second these horrorspawn weren't recapturing the others.

My raiment started to glow, flickers of rainbow light rippling inside the material and shining from the emerald gemstones. Bits of prismatic glimmer began to flake off and fall. There was no way out. I was going to die if help didn't come. Maybe for real, if I was actually damaging my soul.

I curled up, clutching my head and putting everything I had into maintaining my bunker shell of shield spells against the constant assault of countless beam blasts.

Something exploded.

A sudden lessening of the assault had me gasping as the pain of mana strain dropped off sharply. Beam blasts went wild, sweeping across and away from my shields or just cutting off instantly. A storm of movement whirled through the space around me, and horrorspawn died in droves. Viridescent blood splattered all over my shields as my surroundings turned into a meat-grinder.

Finally, it stopped, and I let my shields go with a pained moan. That was a hell of a way to wake up, and Darrek had enough to worry about without having to help me clean up—wait, no, I was in the Horror's lair, not the apartment. Oh, fuck, the me I'd left behind had dispelled under the strain. I'd spent more than a week there, getting by without magic, fretting as day after day went by with no word. Going out to fuck Nick, staying in to soothe Darrek's worry over Martin, picking up the camera to shoot a vanilla scene of Darrek and Vanessa to pad our release schedule with while Martin was missing. Everyone was already worried, and I'd vanished right out of Darrek's arms while we slept.

Slowly, I pushed myself up onto my knees and saw another magical girl standing over me. She was pale and muscular, with a head of short ginger fuzz and a friendly face. Her raiment was dull white metal strung together by glowing blue tubes and decorated with multi-color feather quills. Triangular plates of jagged steel hung suspended in the air around her, dripping green ichor. A Metal Mage.

"Thanks," I wheezed.

She gave me a brittle smile. "You're welcome. Do you think, I could get heal?"

I blinked, suddenly realizing that the blood on her body and legs wasn't from the minions she'd killed. Her stomach was badly discolored and bulging out between the gaps in her raiment, and her legs were drenched with viscera and some red human blood as well as green.

Holy fuck. She fought like that? That was hardcore.

I pushed my Cleansing Aura out and reached up to take her hand and cast Perfect Incarnation, wincing as my head throbbed. Her belly shrank and flattened, fitting properly inside her raiment, and the flow of gore on her legs trickled to a stop. Her hair sprouted into long copper waves, sleeving itself through a tie at the base of her neck before settling at its accustomed length. It was still weird that Perfect Incarnation did that. It _had_ to be a direct interaction with Style, somehow, but I couldn't begin to guess the mechanics behind the interaction.

"Brave Alloy," the Metal Mage introduced herself, examining the mangled body of Ethereal Magus Black Swan next to me.

"Rousing Salve," I replied, wincing at the throb of pain behind my eyeballs.

I healed myself, but it didn't do anything to my headache. I ached in my mind, and if I looked closely I could see a faint auroric steam rising from my raiment.

"Y'know, turtling works better in video games than in real life," Brave Alloy opined, offering me her hand.

I snorted and let her pull me to my feet. "I noticed, but it wasn't like I had a lot of options."

"Are _you_ okay?" Brave Alloy asked.

"I have no idea," I told her. "My soul hurts."

" _That_ doesn't sound good," Brave Alloy said, "but if you're functional, we need to move. We're winning, but that's not going to last if my team bleeds out thanks to the abortion from hell. The others need your healing too, and fast."

"I'm functional," I agreed. "Let's go."

Brave Alloy nodded, relieved. She turned to lead me out, and her metal rearranged itself, moving with her. It touched down on the webbed surfaces around her like extra hands as she moved through the hive. The metal moved like an extension of her body, giving the impression of invisible limbs rather than telekinetic control.

"Your whole team's here?" I asked as I followed her, airstepping off a shield where necessary.

"Magical girls were disappearing and we were investigating," Brave Alloy replied bitterly.

The organic maze opened onto a balcony. The sounds of battle echoed up from below as a handful of magical girls fought a running battle against dozens of sexy horrorspawn. The magical girls had control of the entire far wall with its many alcoves and one of the three large bridges. All of the worm creatures around the brain lake were very, very dead.

"That one is Thundering Skyburst." Brave Alloy pointed at the distant figure that was razing the ranks of horrorspawn with streams of lightning. "The fast one is Scattered Moment." She pointed at the dot that seemed to flicker across the battlefield, swinging a sword bigger than she was. "And that one's our leader, Gravitic Eclipse." She pointed at the figure in red, hovering majestically over the battle and flinging whole crowds of horrorspawn away with a wave of her hand. "Moment's fine. You already got her. But Skyburst and Eclipse and I decided to transform in our unfortunate condition and fight too, once Quakestrider explained about you."

I nodded and kicked on my hoverskates, leaping out into open air. I cast a shield to catch myself, pathing through the air towards the far wall on a route that took me past Gravitic Eclipse. I crouched and picked up speed, racing down a progression of sloped shields.

Glancing back, I saw Brave Alloy flying on wings of paper-thin chrome, her metal arranged around her edge-on. A handful of beam blasts lanced up at each of us, but didn't hit anything other than metal or shield.

"Sylvia!" Brave Alloy shouted.

Gravitic Eclipse looked up as I zoomed towards her. Elegant and beautiful, with dark skin and no hair. She wore a crimson evening gown, flowing around her as she hovered, stretched across her swollen midriff.

Rather that slowing down, I sent an orb ahead to her. She grabbed it and an expression of immense relief crossed her face as I healed her. Dark bronze curls sprouted from her scalp as I blew by.

I spotted Katie, protecting the crowd of naked pregnant girls huddled around the alcoves, and angled my shield path so I wouldn't plow straight into the ground at full speed. I hit the fleshy slope going way faster than I could possibly run, and banked into a hard turn.

"Shanie!" Brave Alloy bellowed. "Incoming heals!"

I threw myself into a skid, screaming to a stop as Thundering Skyburst lurched out of cover behind one of the smaller bridges and wiped out another bunch of horrorspawn with a lightning bolt. She was tall, dark skinned, thin, and limber, and she held an ornate metal wand in each hand. Her raiment was a barely-there collection of jagged golden lace and delicate chains that left nothing to the imagination, except where the thin strips of material had _sliced into_ her bulging belly.

Thundering Skyburst staggered into me, almost collapsing from blood loss. I caught her and ducked down with her in my arms, healing her as quickly as I could with both spells. Brave Alloy swooped over us, crashing into the enemy like a living, pissed off blender.

"Oh thank you fucking god," Thundering Skyburst sighed, clinging to me as black hair sprouted from her scalp and wove itself into sturdy braids.

The healing finished. After a moment, Thundering Skyburst stood up and looked around. The sounds of dying horrorspawn were fading into the distance, and she didn't immediately leap back into battle. I took that as a good sign and sprawled out on my back, closing my eyes to ease the pounding in my head. They ridiculously outclassed me in offensive power anyway.

I felt like I was forgetting something, though.

* * *

"Hey."

I opened my eyes, blinking at the girl that stood over me. I knew that face. The second girl I'd freed, after Katie. Petite, with pale skin, asiatic features, and long straight black hair. Her raiment was a short black dress interwoven with sheer white gauze. She carried a massive single-edged sword on her shoulder, with a dark gray blade that probably weighed more than I did.

"Thank you," Scattered Moment said to me. "I'm sorry it took me so long to snap out of it."

"It's fine," I said. "What's going on now?"

I cocked my head, listening to the low moans of mindless pleasure mixed in with the quiet sobbing and murmurs of comfort coming from the crowd above. I needed to heal the rest of the magical girls, and... Oh shit. Searing Revelation. I sat up, clutching my head as I looked around for her body. The shore of the brain lake was as vast as ever, and I didn't see her right away, but the massive reef of brain tissue... was slowly shrinking, or maybe just sinking.

"A few girls are still glued down in the alcoves," Scattered Moment said, subdued. "We're having trouble getting them free. All of the impregnated girls are free, but they're still pregnant and feeling the stimulant effects of the Horror's aura." She shuddered. "Sylvia, Gravitic Eclipse, took the others and they're searching the hive for the surviving humans."

"Thank you," I said, climbing to my feet. There. A splotch of red in the distance. "Tell everyone I'll heal them, alright? I'll be right back."

"Alright..."

I kicked on my hoverskates and swerved across a bridge onto the bony shore. As I skated around the lake, I glanced up and saw Gravitic Eclipse emerge from the inverted organic superstructure, surrounded by a floating crowd of unconscious naked men. All of the dangling half-transformed horrorspawn had been cut down at some point, leaving broken strands of resin hanging over the lake.

Leaning down, I snatched up Searing Revelation's severed head by her long blonde hair without slowing down.

Now for Martin. A part of me didn't want to find him, didn't want to know. I ignored that part and skated down into the crevice. Martin was there, wedged in right where I'd left him. I skidded to a stop and knelt.

His face was gone. From the neck up, he was horrorspawn, but the rest of his body still looked human. I felt a surge of hope. In the lake, the other men had changed all over, evenly. My interference had clearly done _something_ , even if my biology sense couldn't make sense of what.

I lifted Martin and slung him over my shoulder, resting my cheek against his hip for a moment before I powered up out of the crevice and skated back around the cavern towards the others. As I approached, I saw the handful of naked girls _without_ bulging stomachs clustered to one side, looking various flavors of miserable. Most of the pregnant girls were sprawled on the ground, moaning as they masturbated, or slowly crawling among the rest on shaky limbs still crusted with bits of resin. One of them let out a scream of tortured pleasure and birthed a tadpole. She collapsed, rubbing furiously between her legs, while Scattered Moment flash-stepped over and swept the tadpole away with a swing of her huge sword.

Gravitic Eclipse flew above me with her human cargo, touching down just ahead of me as I glided up to the crowd. She floated the men into unoccupied alcoves and set them down, turning towards me as I swerved to a stop. Martin's tentacled face was hidden behind me, but she blinked at Searing Revelation's severed head.

"Hi," I said as I pushed my Cleansing Aura out to cover everyone at once.

A wave of gasps and startled reactions swept through the impregnated magical girls, and a few of the men began to stir. I held Searing Revelation's head out in front of me, facing away from me, and healed her. Bone, blood and flesh sprouted from her neck, flowing down to draw out the shape of her body, filling in and then covering itself with skin.

"Oh," Gravitic Eclipse said, watching with fascination. "That's striking. It's been a long time since I've seen a healing spell that impressive. Is she going to be alright?"

"She should be," I said, setting Searing Revelation down on the ground now that there was enough of her _to_ set down. "I don't _think_ she was dead long enough for her soul to detach? Be careful, though. She might attack you."

"Noted," Gravitic Eclipse said. "What happened?"

I stepped away from Searing Revelation and sent my orbs into the crowd, healing them four girls at a time. Bellies shrank, hair sprouted, and reactions varied. Some cried. Some curled up, silent. A few staggered to their feet, looking around wildly, and fell into the arms of the next nearest girl in a frenzy of pent up lust.

"She flipped out and tried to kill me the moment I got her free," I explained. "The horrorspawn noticed."

"I see," Gravitic Eclipse said.

One of the rescued men suddenly sat up and looked around wildly. He stopped and stared at the weird sad lesbian orgy going on in front of him, mouth hanging open.

Thundering Skyburst leaped over the crowd and went to him. He flinched, slapping his hands over his lap to cover himself as his eyes darted around.

"What the. What the _fuck_?!"

"Hey," Thundering Skyburst said gently. "It's okay, dude. You're safe. The weird shit went down, but you survived."

"But... but! But, this, here, she! Oh gods, she was a demon! Am I dead?! How is this real?!"

"Hey, it's cool," Thundering Skyburst soothed. "You're not dead, and she was a fey, not a demon. Totally different thing. Welcome to the other side of the Veil."

One of the healed magical girls spun towards the sound of the man's voice. She lurched to her feet, scrambling over the others to reach the alcove where the guy was freaking out at Thundering Skyburst.

"Where are we?" the guy asked, plaintive.

Thundering Skyburst patted him. "We're in a—hey!"

The naked, freshly healed magical girl shoved Thundering Skyburst aside and dropped herself breathlessly onto the man's lap. "Yo. I'm Izzy. What's your name."

"Um! Jared?"

"Do you think I'm pretty, Jared? Do you think I'm sexy? Fuck, I feel like I'm gonna _die_ if I don't get a good dicking _right now_. Oh gods. I need a hard cock in my slutty cunt _so bad_." She pried his hands away from his lap, and I was slightly surprised to see the guy getting hard. "I'll do anything you want, just fuck me, _please_."

"Uh?" the so-named Jared replied in a vaguely affirmative tone.

The so-named Izzy seemed to take that as good enough and yanked the guy to his feet. She dragged him around into an empty alcove and disappeared inside with him. A moment later, two more freshly healed magical girls scrambled towards the men and threw themselves at the first to wake up, while Thundering Skyburst looked on, bemused.

"So, not the impotence curse," I concluded as two more disoriented but amenable men were dragged off by horny magical girls.

Gravitic Eclipse blinked, shook herself, and gave me an inquisitive look. "Hm?"

"I killed Olandra, the fey with the enthrallment powers," I explained. "The men are cursed, but I don't know with what."

Gravitic Eclipse nodded thoughtfully. "We'll watch for symptoms."

I moved my orbs among the last of the pregnant girls, healing them.

"Do you want to set him down with the others?" Gravitic Eclipse asked me, pointing at Martin.

I hesitated, then warily slung him off my shoulder into my arms. Gravitic Eclipse stiffened.

"He's infected?" Gravitic Eclipse asked carefully.

"I got to him fast," I said. "I couldn't heal him entirely, but I stopped it, sort of, but I think he's in a coma. I mean, I think the _eldritch bits_ of him are in a coma."

"If you can't heal him, I don't know what we could do," Gravitic Eclipse admitted. "Just keep him separate from the others, and don't break his restraints. I won't ask you to give up hope, but we should plan for the worst."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"Shanie, go ask Casey if she has any clothing in her hammerspace," Gravitic Eclipse suggested as more of the men started to wake up.

While Thundering Skyburst went off to do that, I found a place to put Martin and set him down, arranging him comfortably. When I finished, Gravitic Eclipse was hovering a few feet in the air, peering into the crowd of recovering magical girls.

"Samantha!" she called.

Scattered Moment looked over from where she was talking to a small group of lucid but miserable-looking girls.

"Have you seen Scyelen?" Gravitic Eclipse asked.

Scattered Moment straightened up, looking startled. "No, not since we cut her down. Scyelen? Scyelen!"

Of the small number of girls who even looked up, none responded to the name. Thundering Skyburst emerged from one of the alcoves and jogged over.

"Did we lose the newbie?" Thundering Skyburst asked. "And Casey says she doesn't have clothes but she does have towels."

"That's fine. Go on overwatch," Gravitic Eclipse told her. "See if we missed anyone, Scyelen included."

"No problem," Thundering Skyburst said. Her skimpy barely-there raiment grew a set of golden dragonfly wings, which lifted her as she flew off to circle the cavern.

Katie emerged from the same alcove and waved at me, beckoning. Brave Alloy stepped out next to her. I picked my way through the unnerving juxtaposition of frantic sex on one side and despondent tears on the other, and reached the alcove. There, glued to the floor, was Bree.

"C-Cameron?" Bree asked.

I let out a breath. "Hey."

"She wants me to cut her free, by way of amputation," Brave Alloy explained with a wince. "You can heal that, right?"

I blinked. "I mean, yes, but..."

"I want _out_ ," Bree whimpered. "I hate the way my skin feels like this..."

"Can't you just transform?" I asked.

"I... L-like a leaf... Like a leaf..." Bree sniffed as her eyes lit up. "I remember it."

"You mean you didn't try that first?" Katie exclaimed. "We were going to cut your limbs off!"

Bree giggled wetly. "Sorry. Like a leaf on the wind, Swift Darling Dancing Breeze shall soar through all opposition!"

Her hands and feet ripped free as her raiment slid onto her body. Bree floated up off the floor with a relieved gasp, and wrapped her arms around herself as she bobbed in mid-air.

"Do you think you can coax the others into transforming?" I asked. "Or should I be on standby for the 'cut off their limbs' plan?"

"Both of those, probably," Brave Alloy said.

Katie nodded.

We managed to free the rest of the girls without cutting any limbs off, but it was a close thing. The sight of more raiments seemed to jolt some of the healed magical girls into trying to transform also, adding a few more on top of that. Several girls were either too catatonic or too wrapped up in their frantic trysts to notice, though.

Thundering Skyburst swooped down towards Gravitic Eclipse on thrumming golden wings. "Hey, I found Scyelen. I think something's wrong with her."

Brave Alloy deployed her wings. Scattered Moment flash-stepped to Gravitic Eclipse's side. Gravitic Eclipse looked to me, questioning, and I nodded. If something was wrong with her I'd come and heal her, if I could. I kicked on my hoverskates and followed them from below as they raced out to collect their wayward teammate.

We found Scyelen, who's title I still didn't know, halfway around the cavern, dragging her distended pregnant body across a bridge towards the lake. Her team circled her before descending as I skated down and slid to a stop next to her.

Under the eldritch pregnancy, Scyelen was short and fair-skinned, with an almost purplish black fuzz on her head. She stopped clawing her way towards the lake and looked up at us hopelessly, with big silver eyes. Gravitic Eclipse knelt down in front of her.

"Scyelen," she said softly. "What are you doing?"

"I can't." Scyelen trembled, her voice breaking. "I can't."

"Can't what?" Gravitic Eclipse asked gently.

"I can't go back!" Scyelen wailed. "Before, before was... I can't go back. I don't want to leave..."

Gravitic Eclipse touched Scyelen's shoulder, and Scyelen stiffened, shivering visibly. "You're not making any sense. This is Rousing Salve. She's going to heal you, okay?"

"No!" Scyelen gasped, shaking off Gravitic Eclipse's touch. "It's not... too late... I can still repopulate... they'll keep me..."

"What's wrong with her?" Thundering Skyburst asked, worried. "It's like she's gone crazy."

"She broke," Scattered Moment offered quietly.

"You mean, like, Stockholm Syndrome?" Brave Alloy wondered. "We weren't here that long, were we?"

Scyelen stopped trying to crawl past Gravitic Eclipse and just collapsed on her side with a piteous moan. Gravitic Eclipse looked up at me with a pleading expression.

I was conflicted. Healing Scyelen would be dangerously close to taking something sexual away from her, but at the same time I suspected that she didn't actually want to be a broodmother breeding slave just for the sake of it. And leaving her unhealed probably wasn't sustainable anyway, so I should just get it over with. I knelt and put my hand on her hip.

Scyelen didn't react to her shrinking belly or regrown hair, except to curl up tighter and glare at Gravitic Eclipse.

"Come on," Gravitic Eclipse said, reaching down. "It'll be okay. Come home with your friends."

Scyelen batted her hands away, and lurched to her feet. "Stop pretending like you care about me! You're not my friends!" She stumbled past the others and tried to walk into the lake.

Brave Alloy caught her and held her back. "Scyelen, come on. We do care about you, but we can't help you unless you tell us what's wrong."

Scyelen glared venomously at the larger girl through her tears. That was obviously the wrong thing to say, but Scyelen's reaction pretty much confirmed my suspicions. There was no mystery here.

"Seriously?" I sighed. I stalked forward as the team looked at me, surprised at my tone. "Alright, you all know exactly what's going on, here."

They all blinked at me, but I saw the flicker in each of their faces as they thought of the answer and then dismissed it as both too obvious and too awkward. Inwardly rolling my eyes, I pulled Scyelen out of Brave Alloy's grasp.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Brave Alloy asked.

"This is not the time to be clinging to plausible deniability," I said.

I grabbed a confused Scyelen's neck and spun, ripping her off her feet and slamming her down to the ground on her back. She gasped at the impact, and I dropped on top of her, knees on her thighs, to pin her legs apart.

"Hey!"

"What the hell!"

I felt the ripple in gravity that prepared to tear me away, but before it could move me, I slammed my lips into Scyelen's and kissed her so hard that it was only my supernatural grace that prevented a chipped tooth. Scyelen's surprised squeal of rapturous relief stopped her team in their tracks. She flailed at me with her arms, touching my body, frantic and desperate to encourage me but unsure how.

Keeping one hand on her neck, I reached down with the other and groped her swollen gooey vulva, roughly kneading her slippery lower lips while Emerald Bliss merged into its phallic form and poised itself just below my fingers.

Without preamble, I willed Emerald Bliss forward, plunging it into Scyelen's vagina in one long slow thrust. She bucked beneath me and her muffled cry almost broke our kiss, but I kept my lips on hers as I tightened my grip on her neck and read her nerve signals, massaging her clit just hard enough to bring her right to the edge and no further.

I kept her on the edge, not letting her cum, for a while. She squirmed and her hands scrabbled at my body, but then she melted straight into subspace. A burning, passive euphoria.

I broke the kiss. "This is what it means, to care for you. Say it."

"This is, what it means, to care for me," Scyelen agreed deliriously.

"The monsters raped you, tormented you, and it was the best you've ever felt in your life," I said. "Say it."

"They raped me. Tormented me. Controlled me. I loved it," Scyelen moaned. "I hated it, but I loved it."

"It fulfilled you," I said. "It fed a starving need within you, a need that had never been fed before, so you would crawl through the filth for the least of another scrap."

Scyelen moaned, hovering comfortably on the barest edge of orgasm as my magical dildo slowly fucked her and my fingers dug into her clit.

"You don't need them," I said. "I will care for you until you find somebody or something better. You don't need them. Say it."

"I don't need them," Scyelen moaned.

I smiled, kissed her, and sent Emerald Bliss pounding into her hard and fast. Scyelen stopped breathing as her orgasm boiled up and erupted violently, shaking her entire body with ecstatic pleasure before she released a scream against my lips.

Gradually, her spasms subsided, and I slowed Emerald Bliss to a stop, buried deep in her pussy. I glanced over and saw the other four magical girls a short distance away, watching uncomfortably.

I let go of Scyelen's neck and slid my arms under her. Gently, I lifted her against me, moving Emerald Bliss with her body to help support her and press her to my front from within her. Scyelen wrapped her arms and legs around me and buried her face in my neck, clinging tight. Her smaller breasts squished into the cords supporting mine, warm and soft on my nipples, and her hot slippery mound ground against the skin below my waist.

I turned and raised an eyebrow at Gravitic Eclipse. She merely bit her lip and nodded, a pensive expression on her face. The others shot Scyelen various unreadable looks.

* * *

 _June 4th, 2027_  
_Equatorial Deeps, Luna_  
_Lair of the Elder Brain_

Searing Revelation was up and dressed in her raiment. She seemed to have forgotten about me in favor of screaming at a few of the impromptu lesbian couples about premarital sex. I'd snarked at her, pretending not to know what 'premarital' meant. She'd tried to skewer me and Scyelen with her sword. Gravitic Eclipse had slapped her down, literally, and now she was off at the edge of the crowd, sulking.

Scyelen had ignored the entire scene, clinging to me and shuddering as I slowly fucked her with Emerald Bliss. She was the only magical girl present who still wasn't in her raiment.

The men were all still completely nude. Brave Alloy had tried to hand out towels, but in attempting to tie them on, the men had discovered Olandra's curse. Clothing, any clothing, _hurt_. They could handle cloth just fine, but if they _wore_ anything, it felt like rusty needles covered in acid, according to their descriptions of the sensation.

"Everyone, listen up!" Thundering Skyburst shouted. She gestured at Gravitic Eclipse.

Gravitic Eclipse levitated upwards until everyone could see her. It was getting darker, as the Elder Brain continued to shrivel up and vanish. "For those of you who weren't listening earlier, we're in a spatially folded underground cavern on Luna. We cannot access the Crossroads. We're going to have to dig our way out, which means traveling in the vacuum of space once we break through."

"I will be providing a mobile platform," Brave Alloy spoke up. "It will not be airtight. For those of you who don't have an Environment module or space-worthy healing, you _must_ remain in physical contact with someone who does."

Bree wafted over and took my hand without looking at me or Scyelen. I glanced at Bree and grimaced. She wasn't okay, and I wasn't sure what she needed.

"To burrow out, we need to dig through the flesh surrounding the hive until we reach rock," Gravitic Eclipse continued. "At that point, Quakestrider will be able to touch the bare rock and attempt to create breakpoints and fissures deep enough that my own attempts to use the hive itself as a battering ram and drill will succeed. Are there any questions?"

"Not all of us can fly. How are we supposed to reach?"

"I will be inverting gravity for the entire upper half of the cavern," Gravitic Eclipse pronounced.

"Holy shit, you can do that?"

"She's the Valorous Defender Gravitic Eclipse! Of course she can do that!"

Gravitic Eclipse gestured for silence. "Yes. And I see no reason to wait, so do please brace yourselves."

Slowly, I felt myself get lighter, until my feet left the ground entirely. I nimbly spun Scyelen and myself upside down. The hive became a non-inverted organic skyscraper, and the glowing lake became an eerie skylight. All together, everyone sank down into the bowl shape of the cavern's ceiling.

"Okay, anyone with attack spells, start blasting!"

I stayed back. I had no damaging spells and Emerald Bliss was occupied. Still, dozens of magical girls tore up the flesh of the cavern with various attacks. Katie, like most Stone Mages of less than extreme power, needed touch to use any of her spells, so she hung back as well.

Dull green ichor oozed into the trench, slowing progress, but eventually they reached moonrock.

Katie splashed down into the trench. She walked a few feet, stomped with an expression of concentration on her face, walked another few feet, and stomped again. She repeated the process again and again, working her way around the entire base of the hive structure.

Brave Alloy moved to a clear space and pulled more metal out of seams in the air. She bent it into bars, which clunked together and formed a spherical cage cut through by a solid plate like one of those playground domes.

"Alright, everybody get in the ball," Brave Alloy called.

Katie leaped out of the trench and shook herself clean, then made her way over to me. Bree flew down and took my hand again. We joined everyone else, hopping through the bars into Brave Alloy's makeshift vehicle. It was a little crowded, but that was good, since our life support solution required everyone to be in physical contact.

Once everyone other than Gravitic Eclipse was inside, she grabbed the bars and flew the platform 'up' to the peak of the hive. There was a moment of tense anticipation.

A terrible unearthly cracking sound echoed up from the base of the hive. A shudder ran through the entire superstructure, and bursts of broken stone and dust exploded out of the bleeding trench. Gravitic Eclipse strained, and with a deafening rumble, the entire hive shifted and sank into the ceiling.

With a concussion that sent a wave of yelps through the crowd, the superstructure tore free from the ceiling and started rotating. It gradually picked up speed until it started to groan under the force of its spin, then Gravitic Eclipse slammed it into the ceiling and broke the moon.


	13. EELESIA

_May 29th, 2027_  
_Gomul Catena, Callisto_  
_TAACAAAGAATAAGAAACAAT_

There was light, ahead. A swirl of Veil colors wrapped around an inverted mountain of dark ice. If I closed my Sight and looked hard, a faint bioluminescent glow reached my eyes through the pitch dark water.

My limbs churned, propelling me ever forward through the icy darkness of Callisto's subsurface ocean. My muscles ached. My heart thundered in my chest. Each breath dragged, heavy, through my lips, and I was long since numb to the sensation of the water trying and failing to enter my mouth and nose when I inhaled.

I sped up. I hadn't dared to hope I'd reach an acugon settlement this soon, but it seemed I'd gotten lucky.

I painted the water in front of me with a blue haze of admiration, purifying it, then sucked in a mouthful through my Environment. It was so cold it hurt my teeth, but it quenched my thirst. I was still desperately hungry, but that was not urgent on a scale of days.

As the acugon village crept ever so slowly closer, my mind circled back to the one discovery that I'd been dwelling on in lieu of constantly fretting about Lynette. Cameron was, somehow, her own patron. Cameron, a magical girl, held _both_ ends of a patron bond. _Magical girls could be patrons._

While the Beacon had kept me ignorant of a lot, I suspected that this was a secret unknown to even the wider magical girl community. What I'd seen was not how the world would look if that knowledge had spread.

I wouldn't go back to the Beacon even if they'd take me, and I had no desire to make myself beholden to any variety of uncaring, inscrutable entity ever again. At the same time, Cameron needed to learn how to control the patron end of her closed loop before her soul ate itself.

Could it work? Could she protect me _and_ save herself by becoming my patron? What would happen if we became _each other's_ patron?

The acugon village emerged from the murk as I continued to swim closer. It resolved into an edifice of carved ice and cultivated coral, shaped into broad towers that sprouted down from the ice above. Cables lit with beads of light stretched from the peaks of the towers down into the abyssal depths.

I reached out and ripped the energy from the Veil. Power rushed into me, restoring my reserves. Acugons were alien in the way their minds worked, but they shared with humans the four basic drives that mapped onto the Veil's colors, even if those drives were expressed differently.

As I swam into the village, several acugons swiveled to stare at me, each with their one over-large eye. It was hard to feel them directly, because acugon emotions didn't map precisely onto human emotions, but some things translated okay. Echoing their emotions was like tasting colors or hearing scents. Weird, but still able to convey information. Curiosity and confusion, mostly.

I fetched up against a coral hut and flopped onto it to catch my breath. A few of the nearby acugons jetted towards each other and tangled into a swirling cluster, grasping and interpenetrating.

It was beautiful.

Their flesh was translucent, and lit from within, showing off what would've been hidden beneath their skin. Their bodies were bivalve, with two vertical halves aimed backwards away from their central eye. Three long sinuous tentacles grew forward from each half, each tapering to a symmetrical three-fingered hand.

The palm of each hand housed a retractable phallic organ that bore a striking resemblance to a human penis. The junctions between the three tentacles on each side of an acugon's body bore a passing resemblance to a human woman's pelvic area, seen from the front, and each of the four orifices led to an organ directly adjacent to the acugon's brain.

Genetic communication. The spontaneous orgy in front of me _was_ a conversation. Acugons didn't have genders, either. What were the singular pronouns that had been settled on for them, again? Oh right. The ones spelled with an 'x' but pronounced with a 'z'.

One acugon in the tangle shuddered in obvious pleasure as all four of xeir yonic orifices were penetrated rapidly by four different individuals, trilateral hands latching on as the phallic organs pistoned into xeir translucent flesh and filled xeir head with ejaculate.

That acugon gave a little shiver, knocked the other acugons' limbs away, and broke off from the erotic dance to swim up into one of the coral structures.

After a moment, xe emerged again and approached me, carrying an electronic device of some kind. It looked like someone had mounted a masturbation sleeve to the back of a tablet computer, then plugged a USB-powered dildo with a long cord into one of the side ports. The acugon reached out with one limb and xeir smooth fingers closed gently around my upper arm.

Xe twitched, and I sensed something like pleased surprise and an echo of startling warmth. The acugon's fingers were chilly, but much warmer than the surrounding water. Xeir touch grazed along my skin, caressing me where my raiment didn't cover, until four of xeir six hands were exploring my body.

It was cute. Was xenophilia a meaningful concept to a species that communicated through sex? This one seemed utterly delighted at the novelty of touching a human.

Of the acugon's remaining hands, one fitted itself around the tablet device, while the other fed the dildo into one of xeir yonic orifices. I watched as the phallic organ within that first hand shot from its sheath, entering the artificial sleeve in a series of rapid strokes before a visible pulsation pumped ejaculate into the device.

A string of base sequences appeared on the tablet screen in a tiny unreadable font, followed by a handful of much more legible words in the Jovian language. I wasn't fluent in _joviengo_ , but I knew enough to make a guess.

_Hello, halfname! How are you here? Where did you come from?_

I reached out and tapped the screen, seeing if I could get a menu of some kind to pop up. If the translator had an english setting, this would be much easier, but after a few moments of fiddling I found the language menu and english wasn't on it.

With a sigh, I figured out how to bring up the keyboard and tapped out a reply. _Enemy hurt me. Me lost under ice. You help me by information me. Which house exist by most time?_

I waited, relaxing into the acugon's gentle exploratory touches, while the translator converted my clumsy _joviengo_ into a base sequence and synthesized the genetic strand. Once it did so, xe shimmied and pointed to an extensively carved edifice of polished coral in the distance. _It was first._

I typed out, _Thank you._

Xe ejaculated another reply, which took me several moments to parse. While my eyes were on the screen, one of the acugon's hands trailed up my thigh and then pressed firmly against the crotch of my raiment. I jumped, gasping at the small jolt of pleasure that raced through my body. Xeir fingertip traced the boundary of the cloth.

_We cannot share fournote speech, but we can share pleasure. Does this apparel keep you alive?_ the translator read.

I giggled at the implicit assumption that removing my coverings was the only possible concern. It struck me that acugons must find the human concept of sexual consent unimaginably strange, when swimming up to another individual and sticking a dick in them was how they initiated all of their conversations.

I caught myself spreading my legs, and let out a disgruntled whine. This acugon was cute and it would've been nifty to have sex with the helpful alien, but my lover and my friend were in enemy hands. They could be suffering while I indulged.

_Not time by share pleasure,_ I typed out. _Thank you._

As the translator conveyed my reply, I pushed myself off my perch and gently brushed the acugon's hands away. I sensed a dip in affect that I interpreted as a cringe. I paused, frowning uncertainly. Using that translator must've been uncomfortable. If sex and communication were so inseparable, then communicating _without_ sharing pleasure must've had some rather disturbing connotations, for an acugon.

I reached out and caught one of xeir tentacles at the wrist, and xeir big single eye swiveled to fix on me. I didn't actually know what I could do that would be a better use of this time. The situation felt urgent, but all I could really do was hurry up and wait. I reached for the translator.

_Wait,_ I typed as I reverted my raiment.

The acugon waited, watching as my raiment folded into itself and exposed my body. I felt xeir mind briefly dull, forced away from the implications of what xe was seeing by the Veil.

_We share pleasure yes,_ I typed out. _We share pleasure small time._ I hesitated, glancing around and blushing at the number of big curious eyes pointed in my direction. _We share pleasure in you house,_ I added.

Xe shook out of xeir daze as the translator spurted an artificial genetic sequence into xeir brain. I sensed something akin to confused-curious relief from xem as xe brightened, in the literal sense of generating more light. The acugon version of an eager nod, if I was interpreting xeir psychedelic emotions correctly.

I giggled. So cute.

Xe latched onto my wrist and tugged me towards the hollow in the coral where xe'd gotten the translator. Inside, it was a cozy little nest with various knickknacks on carved shelves, including a photo print of Callisto hanging in space against Jupiter.

I began to reach for the translator, intending to ask my new friend's name, but then I remembered. An acugon's genetic identity _was_ xeir only name. None of their genetic languages self-symbolized their speakers the way verbal languages all did. Names and gametes were the same thing, to them. Speaking their True Names to each other was how acugons reproduced, and they didn't have the concept of use-names—just a really comprehensive set of relationship labels.

My new friend, who I decided on a whim to name Brighthands, rotated so the tentacle occupied with the translator was on the opposite side of xeir body from me, and reached for my naked body with three grasping hands.

I shivered in anticipation as xeir hands slid over my skin, pulling me closer as xe tugged my thighs apart. My pussy bore enough resemblance to xeir yonic orifices that xe didn't need any help figuring that part out. Xe palmed my crotch, curling xeir fingers up around my pelvis like a pair of living panties.

"Ghuuh!" I jolted, throwing my head back with a startled gasp as Brighthands' slick phallic girth punched through my folds and invaded my depths.

For a moment it remained there, filling my quivering canal while my brain tried and failed to figure out if any of these sensations were supposed to be painful. Then the alien penis slurped back into xeir palm, wrenching out of my vagina to leave me empty and writhing with shuddery waves of heat, only to plunge back into me an instant later.

"Ohh! Oh gods..." I trembled, dragging sourceless air into my lungs for an unstoppable wanton wail as xeir phallic organ pulsed into my pussy at such a rapid pace that I couldn't even try to hold back the orgasm I felt swelling in my core like an oncoming supernova. Xe fucked me at the exactly perfect rate, the maximum speed a cock could plunge into me while still allowing me to feel each individual thrust in full detail.

It stopped without warning, spearing all the way into me and staying there as it pulsated and pumped a rush of hot liquid into my depths. Moaning, I flopped forward in the water and put my hands on the thick bases of xeir tentacles. Brighthands pulled out of me, sliding that hand down my leg and replacing it with another hand. I slid my own hands onto to the pair of puffy clefts between the three tentacles on the closer side of xeir body.

The new penis felt just like the previous one, plunging into my vagina on rapid-fire. My hips shimmied and squirmed, aimless, helpless, unbidden.

Shaky, as waves of pleasure pounded through me, I delved into Brighthands' yonic organs. My fingers slid in easily, one hand on each. I could see the internals through xeir translucent flesh, and the fleshy passages _felt_ like putting my fingers inside a pair of vaginas, except the vulva was inverted. Despite what legions of ignorant hentai artists and animators would have us believe, human vaginas could only stretch towards the back of the body, because there was solid bone between the vagina and the front of the body. But on an acugon that would mean stretching towards their eye, so that was where they had solid bone, which left their holes to instead stretch forward into the curving lips of their vulvic clefts. There were even ridges around the eyelid. Seats for fingers to prevent slips into eye-poking.

Did acugons masturbate? They couldn't possibly not. The echo of pleasure as I fingered two of xeir holes was strong even while a thick slippery phallus pistoned into my own hole.

The penis inside me halted and throbbed, ejaculating. I bucked, tearing my hands away from Brighthands' holes to maul my breasts. Would xe get anything out of touching my breasts? Acugons didn't seem to have an equivalent body part, but xe seemed to derive some kind of basic tactile pleasure from touching the softer parts of my body.

I grabbed one of xeir unoccupied hands and brought it to my chest, placing xeir fingers on my left breast while I continued to fondle my right breast. Brighthands' fingers squeezed my pliant flesh, exploring the softness, but if anything xe seemed weirded out by my nipple as xe ran a fingertip over it curiously.

Giggling, I took xeir hand and brought it to my face instead. Four yonic organs. I wondered if that meant xe'd be unsatisfied if fewer than four of xeir six cocks got to play at once. Xeir eye swiveled to watch what I was doing as I kissed xeir palm and teased the tip of xeir sheathed phallic organ. Xe seemed hesitant, but I was echoing xeir pleasure and I could feel the building urge, even if I couldn't place that urge on my own body map.

The penis launched from xeir palm like an arrow from a bow, straight into my mouth. With lightning-fast reflexes, I clamped down on the mushroom tip with my lips, catching it so xeir hand got forced away from my face instead of ramming it down my throat. So the thrusting reflex _was_ mostly involuntary. Interesting. I had to wonder if a veilbound baseline had ever done anything like this with an acugon, because there was no way the acugons hadn't at least _tried_ during first contact, and human-acugon chemical compatibility was by now a _known fact_.

Swirling my tongue around the throbbing glans, I wrapped my hand around the base of the phallus and started sucking and stroking. Brighthands shivered, hand twitching as xe tried to control xeir thrusting and was only partially successful. Every few seconds, the slippery penis slurped out of my mouth through my hand before thrusting back in and shooting a few drops of a hot tasteless fluid onto my tongue.

Brighthands cupped my crotch with another hand, again, and speared into my pussy with rapid thrusts. I moaned, reaching out with my free hand to finger a yonic orifice.

This time, when xe ejaculated xe didn't stop, and I felt the echo of xeir own pleasure compound from three different sources and bloom into something more like an actual peak.

My eyes popped open as a seething explosion of ecstasy erupted out of my core, tore through my thrashing limbs, and ripped out of my throat as a savage scream. For an eternal moment, I was nothing but pleasure.

I came back to awareness, held gently in Brighthands' tentacles where the sinuous limbs curled around me, looped over my joints to let xeir hands grasp my arms and legs with better leverage. Xeir one huge eye loomed over me, and I could see my reflection in it.

I smiled at xem, sensing xeir cautious optimism. Xe brought the translator up, displaying, _You are well? I made no mistakes?_

_I are well,_ I typed, then, _I memory pleasure large._

Brighthands glowed happily. After something resembling a hug goodbye, I swam outside and chanted my transformation aria.

I pushed off and swam towards the intricately carved coral building that Brighthands had initially pointed out. Several acugons including my new friend followed me at a moderate distance. I hoped that the Veil didn't hurt any of them when they saw me cross over.

Finding the largest single piece of the squat tower, I pressed myself against it and activated my Worldshift. Reality shuddered. I willed more power into the module, forcing it to shift me before it could complete the compound reflection just like I had to do when I was trying to leave Konassil.

I slipped through the seams, and let the Worldshift collapse, throwing me into the Crossroads.

* * *

 _May 30th, 2027_  
_Freedom City, Ganymede_  
_Atarashi das Marchen Arcology_

For a moment, I thought I was still lost in the Crossroads. Criss-crossing canyons of glass and steel stretched into the distance, lit from far above by a warm golden glow, and lit from within by the clashing colors of ubiquitous digital signage. But it was all oriented in a single direction, and cohesive in a way the Crossroads wasn't. In my Sight, reality was once more flat and contiguous.

Advertisements streamed across the sides of the skyscrapers, and autonomous flying taxis zoomed overhead, mingling with drones and artificial birds. Dense footpaths formed several layers of 'street-level' traffic—teeming crowds of people dressed in provocative and exotic styles often based around unfamiliar transparent materials. As a general rule, anything opaque was skin-tight, and anything that wasn't skin-tight was transparent.

The Jovian internet was still separate from the Earth-Venus internet. Contact was still very filtered. That must've been how the stereotypical image of a grimy cyberpunk back-alley full of cyborgs in threadbare monochromatic jumpsuits had managed to survive so long, when the reality was nothing like that.

The reality of a Jovian city made me feel like a bumpkin wandering into civilization from a third-world hovel. It made Seattle feel positively _rural_. The level of wealth was startling. And the people, every one of them looked young and healthy without exception.

I shook myself and started walking. The Veil was thick with color, thicker than I'd ever seen before, and I could still pick out three unfamiliar souls in range of my Sight. That was more indicative of raw population density than _per capita_ magic use, but still. I spotted five separate Crossroads entrances within twenty minutes.

I still didn't quite have a plan, beyond finding Black Swan and murdering her. Somehow. But step one was recovering from my long swim, and I was very hungry.

I passed a restaurant advertising full-meal free samples of their new texture-threading algorithm, and my stomach gurgled at the savory scents wafting out the door. I went in, sat down, and tapped the big flashing free sample icon on the table in front of me.

A blank-faced young man, dressed in a clear plastic-like jumpsuit over silver underwear, with a dive jack peeking out of his hair and a corporate logo glowing on his shoulder, walked over with his eyes closed and set a dinner plate down in front of me with mechanical precision.

A cyberlifer. Someone who lived in immersive virtual reality full-time while renting out their body to pay for it. He might not even know his body was employed at a restaurant.

I watched him walk away. Again, the reality defied the stereotype. He didn't stagger around like a grotesque zombie meat-puppet _at all_. I turned to my meal, and started eating.

It was the best thing I'd ever tasted.

I closed my eyes and sighed at the blissful flavors. I still needed a plan. Before anything else, I needed to _find_ them. For all I knew, fleeing through Callisto had been a complete misdirection. They could be anywhere.

I'd finished my free meal and rested my chin on my hands, when I felt something change. I jerked upright, whipping around to stare at the source of the wrongness.

An ivory-skinned six-year-old boy, dressed in an eerily well-fitted pitch-black sleeve-shirt and pants, stepped out of the restroom at the back of the restaurant and met my eyes. He brushed by another customer, and the girl stopped in her tracks, her face flushing red with pulsing waves of lust. She fell to her knees with a delirious moan and shoved a hand into her shiny pink booty-shorts without a thought for her surroundings.

A lurching heat stirred in my core and my knees knocked together as my body filled with an arousal I knew wasn't mine.

The little boy didn't look at or acknowledge the girl. He walked around a couple in a booth, also ignoring them as they cut-off mid-word and kissed frantically, clawing at each other's clothes. The little boy reached my table and clambered up into the seat across from me.

"Hi, Eelesia," he said, entirely too innocent. "My father sent me to help you recover his vassal."

I forced down the throbbing need between my legs and focused on the boy in front of me. In my Sight, he... looked exactly the same as he did to my eyes. A chill crept down my spine, and my head started to spin as the optical image remained insistently, dazzlingly solid. I tore my gaze away and closed my Sight, breathing hard.

That had been unutterably weird, but there was only one person this could be. "You're Lyn's little brother, the demon."

"My name's Gaiden." He held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

I gave his hand a wary look.

"Oh right." He put his hand down. "You probably shouldn't touch me."

"Shouldn't you still be a baby?" I asked.

"Demons grow faster, especially when we want to," Gaiden said. "I'm a demon of lust, you know. My aura is going to get unmanageable if I have to spend very much more time living while I can't have sex."

I glanced around and counted at least twenty people openly masturbating or having sex on the chairs and tables. I took a shaky breath and refocused on Gaiden.

"Unmanageable?" I repeated.

Gaiden shrugged. "Anyway, I'm here to tell you where to go. Your enemy's lair is on Luna. Lynette's soul has been bound into the form of a power artifact and will be lost in the battle if you aren't there."

"Battle? What battle?" I asked.

Gaiden shrugged again. "I don't know. It's what father said. You have at least few days, though. The enemy's lair can't be breached from outside, but the Rousing Salve is mostly likely still alive and less containable than the enemy believes." His shirt unwove itself and split open, supporting a small gadget on several black tendrils. "Here. It's a lunar positioning system. All you have to do is go to the marked coordinates and wait."

I took the gadget and watched his shirt reweave itself. "Wait for how long?"

Gaiden shrugged.

I squeezed my legs together tight and took a deep breath. "Okay. How do I free Lyn's soul once I have the artifact?"

"Just break it, duh," Gaiden said, wiggling out of his seat. "Well, that's all I came to say. I should go before this gets the wrong kind of attention. When you see Lyn, tell her I said hi, and that I miss her. Bye!"

Black tentacles sprouted out of nothing, wrapped around Gaiden, and shrank into themselves until there was nothing left. The oppressive aura of lust vanished all at once, but its physical effects lingered.

Pushing through the throbbing heat in my core and ignoring the juices seeping down my thighs, I slipped out of the restaurant and made a beeline for the nearest Crossroads entrance.

* * *

 _May 30th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Neon Omicron Intersect_

My fingers sank into my pussy the instant my raiment was out of the way. Breathing hard, I stroked my inner walls with a gasp of relief as my juices spilled over my hand and dripped from my knuckles onto the polished black stone under my feet.

Moaning, pumping my fingers into myself, I slid down the smooth cold wall, plopping wetly onto the ground with my legs splayed wide.

With my fingers thoroughly drenched, I moved up to my clit and rubbed, frantic. My hand flew as I raked my fingers back and forth over my clit, while I used my other hand to mash my breasts and crush one of my nipples. I moaned, writhing with pleasure and raw need as my butt slid around on juice-slick stone.

My core tightened and burst, pulsing pleasure through my body as my fingers set off sparking waves of bliss from my pussy.

With a sigh, I slumped, sliding down to lay flat in the puddle of my own sexual fluids. Note to self: demons are scary. The power of a Horror's mind-scrambling aura, entirely and precisely tuned to one completely comprehensible human desire? I didn't blame Gaiden for his nature, but yikes.

Slowly, I rolled over and climbed to my feet. I had a rescue to plan.

* * *

 _June 2nd, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Towerglass Zeta Centroid_

The twinned Winter Cuties Snowflurry and Hailfall lived in a spacious offshoot of a gray cubical-wall maze that dead-ended in a amalgamated office break room and restroom corridor. It was a good spot. Hard to find, easy to get to, with food and running water. Scattered possessions adorned corners and nooks, and a there was a bed made of at least a dozen sleeping bags tucked into an alcove.

I resisted the cozy nest's siren call and wedged myself up against the gray fabric of what passed for the ceiling. I could hear Snowflurry and Hailfall's approaching footsteps as they returned home after another day of playing information broker.

I idly wondered how often they had to defend this space from other squatters. It would be a rare group of thaumics who'd be brave enough to contest a magical girl's claim, and most magical girls would have better options than picking a fight over it.

I was too tired to enjoy the irony of thinking about that right before I dropped from the ceiling and drove Hailfall's face into the soft gray floor with my foot. They'd fucked up bad. I _wanted_ to scare them.

Snowflurry leaped back, whirling around as she called out, " _Spire of Wint_ —oof!"

I snatched her out of the air by the front of her white dress and slammed her into the wall. Hailfall leaped up, a needle of ice stabbing forth from her hand. I deflected the makeshift skewer, whipped Snowflurry off the wall, and smacked Hailfall with her twin's body.

While she reeled back, I darted forward and snatched Hailfall by the chest strap of her battle harness. One in each hand, I slammed both Winter Cuties up against the harder tile wall at the back of their camp and glared at them.

"Lace?!" Snowflurry exclaimed, wide-eyed as she ceased to struggle.

"What the everliving fuck, girl?!" Hailfall added, gasping.

"You. Owe. Me. Money." I blinked. "I mean. Not money. But, you owe me. Stuff. _Answers._ Did you know it was a setup? Did you know what would happen?" I mentally shook myself. That came out way less coherent than I'd intended.

Snowflurry and Hailfall exchanged alarmed glances. "What happened?"

The obvious and genuine concern in their chorused voices made me feel bad about ambushing them. I let go and let them slide down to the floor.

"L—I mean Shade, is dead and bound. Lyri is dead and _sealed_. Salve might still be alive, but I have no idea what they're doing to her," I said tiredly. "It was a trap. You sent us into a trap."

"Oh shit," Hailfall whispered.

"We're terribly sorry, Eternal Solace, but there was no way we could've known," Snowflurry hedged. "But we will certainly blacklist Ethereal Magus Black Swan if that is your wish, and under the circumstances we can forgive your invasion of our home, even if we would've preferred to be contacted at one of our usual places of business."

I rubbed my eyes. "Look, I haven't had a moment to rest in the last _week_ , and I'm sure the Beacon knows I survived by now. Thanks to _your_ fuckup they've got even more to pin on me than they did before. I need your help. And you owe me. Please."

Snowflurry sighed. "Yes, I suppose you have a point. I'm not making any promises, but what would you need from us to make this square?"

"Let me crash here today," I listed. "Don't tell anyone I'm here. Find me a Spirit Mage who won't double-cross me, like you were originally supposed to."

"Is that all?" Snowflurry asked hopefully.

I frowned. "Actually no." The coordinates I got from Gaiden weren't within a comfortable running distance of any artificial structures, let alone any known routes. "I need a spaceship."

Snowflurry and Hailfall both blinked at me. "A spaceship?"

"Where do you need it, and what do you need it for?" Snowflurry asked.

"Luna," I said. "And I just need something that'll get me to the equator from at least as far as Esidara, and get a few more people back to Esidara with me."

"That's a bit outside our usual sphere of influence," Snowflurry said. "I take it you're planning a rescue mission?"

I just nodded, leaning against the soft gray wall.

"Gonna be tough, that one," Hailfall said. "Esidara is a tightly regulated industrial complex. Only a few thousand people actually live there, and every one'a them is accounted for."

"Not anymore," Snowflurry disagreed. "They're moving families in from Earth now that the World Ring is open to the public. Maybe we could arrange for a tour bus to go missing?"

Hailfall waved a hand at me. "Pretty sure Lace here can outrun a space bus."

"Does that mean I can stay?" I asked.

Snowflurry and Hailfall nodded at me. "Yes."

"A bus is better than nothing," I told them.

Going over to the nest of sleeping bags, I pulled out my phone and composed a short e-mail to let Dad know I was alive and what I was doing. It probably wouldn't reach him for several days—finding a Cytherian signal in the Crossroads would definitely take longer than just physically going to see him and coming back—but it was probably going to _be_ several days until I was done picking up the pieces of this disaster.

I hit send and put my phone away, flopped down into the cozy improvised bed, and died.

* * *

 _June 3rd, 2027_  
_Esidara, Luna_  
_Shackleton Crater Megafactory_

At the south pole of Earth's moon, within a deep natural crater that remained perpetually in shade, a joint venture between several international corporations and several governments had built a central hub to coordinate resources for the construction of the World Ring. Now that the base structure of the World Ring was complete, it was cheaper to haul material up the skyways than to ship it down to orbit from Luna, which freed up Luna's immense industrial complex to build other things.

The massive multi-level factory filled the center of the crater, like the hub of a spoked wheel with hundreds of bridges and tunnels extending into and through the paved rock walls. The entire crater was pressurized to Earth-normal and domed over with a thin metamaterial membrane. Underground highways connected the Megafactory Dome to the Earthrise Dome towards the light side, the Deepwatch Dome towards the dark side, and the newly completed Lifeland Dome towards the leading side. A cavernous airlock and launch bay occupied the trailing side, opening onto the maglev launch rail that could currently throw cargo back into Earth orbit, and would someday extend around the entire trailing hemisphere and be able to throw millions of tons from Luna's north pole into arbitrary Solar orbits.

I stood on the roof of the megafactory, peering up at the dome and the stars beyond to orient myself. Using an airlock was out of the question. I didn't have the access or the authorization, and a damaged airlock was a much bigger problem than a damaged dome.

My body burst alight as I drew on my reserve of awe, glowing green and strengthening myself. I crouched, and the metal buckled under my feet as I launched myself upwards at an angle. Violet terror let me slip through the air without friction, allowing me to keep most of my speed. I fired a negative green Impact Bolt at the dome, weakening a small area with a blast of revulsion.

Arrowing my body, I sliced through the thin material and blew out into the vacuum of space, gaining extra height from the rush of escaping air.

Before I even reached the peak of my leap, an automated drone reached the hole. It formed an air-tight seal, then sprayed the hole with feedstock, allowing the dome to repair itself. The repair would be logged, scans would find the dent I'd left in the roof of the megafactory, and the whole thing would be written off as a meteor strike and forgotten about. Much cleaner than trying to walk through an airlock.

I slammed down on the rocky lunar terrain and rolled to my feet, taking off at a light sprint. It was utterly and oppressively silent as I ran. My feet touched down without a hint of sound, and I could hear my heart beat better than my own breathing.

Out beyond the Lifeland Dome, hidden behind a convenient rock, I found the squat land vehicle right where the loli twins had promised. It was wide enough to straddle a three-lane road, with eight side-mounted bulbous balloon tires and articulated solar fins sticking up from the top like a feather crest.

I entered through one of seven single-person airlocks and breathed a sigh of relief at being able to hear my sigh of relief. Settling into the driver's seat, I pulled out my phone and reviewed my notes. Thankfully, it was simple enough that I was peeling out only a few minutes later.

* * *

 _June 4th, 2027_  
_Mare Nectaris, Luna_  
_Gaiden's Coordinates_

There was nothing to do but wait. I could see _something_ under the ground with my Sight, but it was more like a shadow, a region of reality darkened by the presence of something beyond.

I reclined on one of the passenger benches at the back of the bus, scrolling through a document on my phone. The Winter Cuties hadn't had a Spirit Mage on tap, but they had heard rumors that potentially offered an alternative. The compilation of rumored incidents and correlated social media posts they'd given me did seem to suggest that there was a benignly-intentioned will-o-wisp living in a small town in Florida.

In theory, a will-o-wisp should be able to provide Cameron with... I frowned, looking away from my phone. The bus shook, rocking with the faintest wobble. Then again.

With a yelp, I shoved my phone into my Pocket and leaped up. I threw myself into the rear airlock, and sound died to silence as it cycled. The outer door opened, and I scrambled up onto the roof of the bus.

I could _see_ the ripples moving through the lunar surface, radiating from that shadow. This was it.

A massive wave raced outward, dwarfing the previous ripples as fissures tore open in its wake across the barren gray landscape. Dozens of souls slid out from 'behind' the shadow as the lunar surface buckled and heaved upwards. Vast slabs of stone and rock ripped out of the ground, accelerating upwards in a cloud of debris that seemed to be falling into space.

The cracking mound of rising terrain exploded outward, bursting away as a whirling purplish mass punched up from underneath. The purplish mass tore itself apart, it's spin spent to break the rocks. Organic-looking fragments and shards ripped away, flung out among the falling rocks.

A glint of metal rose through the center of the explosion, hovering above the vast sinkhole that formed as the broken slabs of lunar earth collapsed under gravity. I pulled a flare out of my Pocket and lit it, waving it over my head while I scanned around with my Sight.

As the debris settled, I spotted one soul that was separated from the rest, laying still on the surface. I dropped the flare on the roof of the bus and hopped down, running down the barren hillside into the torn shreds of what looked like some kind of hive.

I slowed to a jog as Lynette's soul became clear to my Sight, folded in on itself like I remembered. I circled around a boulder, and there, in the dirt, was the wooden figurine. I picked it up reverently, dusted it off, and hugged it to my chest. I didn't know if Lynette was awake in there. I didn't dare break the figurine until we were somewhere safer, but just in case, I held her to my front instead of putting her in my Pocket.

I turned and jogged back up the dusty gray hillside.

When I reached the bus, a crowded metal cage was descending slowly to settle up against the airlock at the back of the bus. A couple dozen magical girls were crowded onto the platform with another dozen naked men.

I stopped and blinked at the sight. Wait, was that Valorous Defender Gravitic Eclipse? Oh wow.

A naked man and a petite magical girl in a black and white dress squeezed into the airlock. It cycled. Then it cycled again and the magical girl emerged alone to repeat the process with the next man.

Gravitic Eclipse, hovering above the cage in her regal crimson raiment, noticed me and gave me a nod. I responded with a shy wave. She smiled at me, and I felt a flutter in my chest as I blushed.

Another man got helped through the airlock, and another, and the shuffling brought another welcome sight into view. That lush bare bottom framed by black thigh boots and a jade corset with a pair of waifish legs wrapped around it could only belong to one girl. Cameron was alive and well, and it looked like she'd made a friend.

I let out a sigh of relief.

As the last of the naked men squeezed into the airlock with the petite magical girl, there was another shuffle that revealed a final male figure bound in chains. This one was unconscious as they carried him into the airlock. There was something wrong with his head. I blinked and peered at him with my Sight, only to blanch. I had no idea what I was looking at but it didn't look safe.

With the men safely inside, the entry process could speed up. Even the magical girls who couldn't survive in space could endure it for at least a few moments without ill effects. A handful of the girls split off from cage, circling around to use one of the other six airlocks.

I went and let myself in ahead of them, breathing out a hum at the return of air and sound. Inside, a dozen naked men sat awkwardly in various seats and a nervous murmur of conversation died off as they all stopped to look at me.

"Uh, hi?" I said, feeling put on the spot. I adopted a bright smile. "Hello! I'm Eternal Solace and I will be your driver this evening!"

"Hi..." a few of the naked men murmured.

The rear airlock opened and a delicate-looking magical girl in a spring-green bikini-and-ribbons raiment lurched into the aisle with a loud gasp. "I hate space. I hate space. I hate space..."

More magical girls filed into the bus through the various airlocks, finding seats in half a dozen places. Collectively, they exuded a pall of weary dullness, tangled up in feelings of sexual confusion and numb dread. One magical girl who felt far more of the former than the latter hesitated in the aisle for five entire seconds before throwing herself straight onto the lap of one of the naked men, who wrapped his arms around her with an air of delighted disbelief.

The rear airlock cycled, and Cameron emerged, most of her body obscured by the nude back of another girl wrapped around her. Cameron held the nude girl close, and a glint of emerald drew my eyes down to where the back end of Cameron's magic dildo peeked out of the waifish girl's nethers.

"Eelesia?" Cameron breathed, surprised. "How're you here? How'd you find us?"

"Lyn's patron sent me to help," I explained.

"Lyn isn't here..." Cameron's eyes fell to the wooden figurine I had clutched to my chest. She blinked. "Oh _that's_ what I forgot. Wait, how the fuck do _you_ have that thing?"

I paled. She didn't know. "Cameron, this is a power artifact. That means a magical girl's soul was trapped and bound to it, enslaving her power to whoever wields it. This _is_ Lyn."

Cameron flinched, a horrified stillness shrouding her face.

I wanted to hug her, but the nude girl had that pretty well covered. I settled for squeezing Cameron's shoulder, keeping my senses well away from her deeply aroused passenger. "You're here. We can get her back. Are _you_ okay?"

Taking a breath, Cameron nodded and moved out of the aisle towards the delicate bikini-and-ribbons girl. "I'm fine. Bree?" The delicate girl looked over from her perch atop a backrest. "This is Eelesia the Eternal Solace. Eelesia, this is Bree the Dancing Breeze, and Scyelen of the title I still don't know."

"Marvelous Mimic Malevolent Mirror," Scyelen moaned softly.

"Noted." Cameron smirked. "Are you talking now?"

Scyelen shuddered and breathed out an affirmative whine. I looked away from her, and saw the chained-up man laying on the floor below Dancing Breeze. I blinked. His head was purplish gray, and instead of a face he had five tentacles of decreasing size. From the neck down his body was human, but also oddly familiar, and his hands and feet weren't just chained but glued together with a purplish resin.

"It's not orgasm denial that you're into, exactly," Cameron murmured to Scyelen in a musing tone. "I bet you're never even tempted to edge yourself, when it's just you."

Scyelen nodded into Cameron's neck. "I... like they way it feels when I need to cum, more than how it feels after I cum, but I still want to cum..."

"You need the choice to be taken away from you," Cameron said. "You never liked the torment, but that was the point. It's exciting when you can't stop whatever's happening to you, but there's something in you that goes unsatisfied when it isn't something you _would_ stop, if you could."

Scyelen nodded again, face hidden. "I... yeah. It's just... I don't like it. Until I try to get away and... can't. Then it's... not _better_ , but..." She shivered to the sound of a quiet squelch from where Cameron's dildo was lodged inside her.

"It makes sense," Cameron murmured, stroking Scyelen's spine. "It's a perfectly valid way to be kinky. Don't let the circumstances of how you discovered it sour you on knowing this about yourself."

I bit my lip, watching them awkwardly and feeling a little intrusive. My voice came out hushed and soft. "What happened down there?" I glanced around the increasingly crowded bus. "Were all of these others taken the same as you and Martin Grey?"

Dancing Breeze turned away and looked out the window.

"A giant green brain was using magical girls as surrogates to breed more of its minions," Cameron said bluntly.

"Succinct," Scyelen giggled.

Petting her, Cameron looked down at the unconscious man chained up on the floor. "And yes, more or less. We were the breeding slaves and the men were... substrate."

My eyes flew wide as it clicked. No wonder that penis looked so familiar. " _That_ is Martin Grey?" I squeaked.

Cameron looked at me, subdued. "Yeah. I don't suppose you have any insights?"

I shook my head. "I already looked at him before I knew who he was. I'm sorry."

Cameron sighed and sank down onto the seat next to Dancing Breeze's legs, settling Scyelen astride her. "As far as I can tell, he's stable. Let me know if you suddenly have an idea."

I nodded and slipped into the seat next to her, opening my Sight to give Cameron herself a closer look. My heart skipped at what I saw. The feedback loop had grown. My first guess had been decades, but at this rate Cameron had mere _months_ before her mana went into exponential decay and killed her. I stopped myself from blurting that out where it might be overheard, but I made a mental note to talk to Cameron about my mutual patron plan as soon as I could get her alone.

Dancing Breeze wafted down into the seat on Cameron's other side. "So what kind of magic does a Malevolent Mirror use anyway?"

"I don't have a spec," Scyelen mumbled into Cameron's neck. "My soul was an experimental variant. I can only have one spell, but it can be any spell I see cast or that belongs to a magical girl I can touch. I've got Cameron's Cleansing Aura right now. The effect stacks."

"That would also be why nobody's needed a bathroom yet," Cameron added. She turned to me. "Eelesia, you can sense emotions, right?"

"Of course," I said.

Cameron peered around at the bus full of magical girls and naked men. "Which of these men are lonely to a significant degree? Who's feeling ignored, alone, and aroused right now?"

"Um." Oh right. I forgot who I was talking to for a moment. Biting my lip, I probed with my senses, then pointed out five different men. "Him, him, and him. Him and him."

"Thanks."

Cameron planted a foot, and a second identical Cameron appeared nude in front of her, toe to toe. The duplicate wiggled into the aisle and went over to plop herself on the lap of the first man I'd pointed out. Cameron made another duplicate, and another, until there were five nude Camerons, each on a naked man's lap.

I shook my head and smiled at the real Cameron. She was kind of ridiculous, but it'd be nice if more people were her kind of ridiculous.

Just then, an airlock opened and Gravitic Eclipse herself stepped into the bus. A ripple of quiet spread through the murmured conversations, an almost physical pull that drew everyone's attention to the regal magical girl in her elegant crimson raiment. No, not almost. That _was_ a physical pull.

"It seems we've had a turn of good fortune," Gravitic Eclipse said, getting a few light chuckles as she gestured around at the interior of the bus. She faced me with a smile, projecting the feeling that she was giving me the benefit of the doubt even though she recognized exactly what I had clutched to my chest. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I squeaked, blushing. "I'm glad I could help."

"Is the return of this vehicle expected by anyone?" Gravitic Eclipse asked.

I shook my head. "I was told that no one would come looking for it."

Gravitic Eclipse nodded. "I had intended to carry us to Esidara, force entry, and from there help everyone escape into the Crossroads. That is no longer our best option, now that we can travel in a semblance of comfort. I am tempted to simply carry us directly back to Earth. Does anyone here actually live in Esidara?"

No one spoke up.

"Does anyone here _not_ live on Earth?" Gravitic Eclipse asked.

Three magical girls and one of the men with a Cameron copy in his lap raised their hands. The real Cameron gave me a curious look. With a startled jolt, I realized that I should also put my hand up.

"Um," I spoke up, hand freezing halfway off Lynette's figurine as my mind flashed across the Crossroads maps I'd memorized. "I don't, but I actually need to go to Florida. And doesn't the Shoreshine route go right through Miami next to a nude beach?"

"Hey, that's right!" someone said.

"That would probably help," someone else said.

"I'm not good-looking enough to go to a nude beach," some other guy mumbled into a Cameron copy's shoulder.

"Dropping a missing space bus in the middle of a boardwalk probably isn't a good idea, though."

"Oh, that's easy! I can just make us look like an extra small fluffy cloud!"

"That's still weird enough that _somebody_ is probably going to stroke out."

"So? We've got the slutty uber-healer with us. She can fix it."

Cameron offered a sardonic smile in the general direction of that last comment. I glanced at her as I felt her crush a nostalgic pang.

"Alright," Gravitic Eclipse spoke up, making her way towards the front of the bus. "Everyone strap in. We'll land in Orlando, and go from there?"

No one objected.

Gravitic Eclipse settled in the driver's seat. I pulled the lap belt from a slot in my seat and secured it as everyone else more or less did the same. All of the Cameron copies stayed put, strapping themselves down on top of their chosen laps, while Scyelen refused to even turn around on the real Cameron's lap to face forward.

I watched eagerly through my Sight as three separate spells layered themselves onto the bus in perfect harmony. It was said that Gravity Mages manipulated the nature of gravitational bonds between objects, but if that were _actually_ true even the weakest Gravity Mage would be able to pull the moon out of the sky. Pulling the moon out of the sky would be _easier_ than levitating a small object. No. As I observed, each of Gravitic Eclipse's spells warped the matter of the bus itself to change how _we_ interacted with the gravitational field. The first spell warped the intensity of the interaction to increase or decrease our acceleration rate. The second spell skewed our reference frame, tilting our acceleration away from the center of Luna's gravity well, but I could see how the skew would hit a hard limit at ninety degrees. To fall _up_ , we needed the third spell, which inverted our interaction with the gravitational field and turned every pull into push.

Nifty.

Shortly, the ground fell away, leaving everyone weightless. Looking out the window, the lunar landscape pivoted around and began to rush away as the bus picked up speed, but there wasn't any sensation of movement as Gravitic Eclipse set us falling sideways over the gray wasteland.

Behind us, on the peak of a ridge overlooking the new sinkhole, a glimmer of light caught my eye. A ghostly outline of a nude woman stood out against the starry void. I felt a chill, and snapped my Sight open again, but the ethereal figure was gone.

* * *

 _June 4th, 2027_  
_The World Ring, Earth_  
_New Atlantica_

I leaned away from my seat to stare out the window at the arc of the World Ring as Gravitic Eclipse flew us parallel to the gleaming gigastructure. I'd seen pictures, of course, but only pictures. The World Ring wasn't actually visible as more than a hair-thin line from the Earth's surface, and then only when the sun hit it at just the right angle.

The World Ring's foundation had two primary structures. The ribbon, and the sleeve. It looked tiny in most of the pictures, but the ribbon was about as wide as cruise liner. The sleeve encased the ribbon, separated from it by a magnetic cushion like an insanely large maglev train. The whole foundation had been built in low orbit, and once complete the sleeve had accelerated against the ribbon, slowing itself down and speeding the ribbon up until the sleeve itself came to a complete stop relative to Earth.

Massive cable trains, named skyways, anchored the sleeve to the Earth's surface. The first skyways were all attached to the equator in international waters and used exclusively as cargo lifts for shipping materials up to the Ring, but in the last few years a handful of major cities further into the northern and southern hemispheres got their own skyway installations.

After a long deceleration in the shadow of the sleeve, Gravitic Eclipse landed the bus _on_ one of those skyways, and _drove_ most of the way down to Orlando from the edge of space in a slightly harrowing test of the bus' top speed.

The sun set at about the same time we reached the tops of the highest clouds. The sky was mostly clear, as darkness fell and allowed the lights of cities to arise from the darkness and form constellations below as well as above.

Beside me, on Cameron's lap, Scyelen let out a soft moan, and I squeezed my legs together as the echoes of her pleasure leaked through my senses. A phantom pulsation whispered through my groin, a faint sensation of convulsing muscles stretched around the unyielding girth of Cameron's phallic implement.

With a bashful smile, I rested my head on Cameron's shoulder and tucked Lynette's figurine between my thighs. Scyelen's subspace was soothing, and observing Cameron tend to her was at least as absorbing as the view out the window.

* * *

 _June 4th, 2027_  
_Sebring, Florida_  
_Lake Jackson_

A broken halo of sparkling city lights framed a dark circle of clear sky reflected in the placid waters of a small lake. We plummeted through the calm night air, angling towards the concentration of light on the east shore.

I felt Dancing Breeze's magic seize my body, the air itself resisting my fall. Cameron floated beside her, holding on to one of her ribbons. A still-naked Scyelen clung unhappily to Cameron's back, pouting at the four glassy emerald orbs orbiting Cameron's right arm.

Dancing Breeze set us down gently on a roof ledge overlooking a roundabout that encircled a small park in the heart of the town. The delicate Air Mage touched down next to me and folded her arms, staring down into the town with dull eyes. She sighed, and her raiment began to fold into itself and vanish. I followed suit, dismissing my own raiment.

Scyelen slid off Cameron's back and immediately slipped under her arm to cling to Cameron's side, burying her face in one of Cameron's succulent breasts with a needy whimper.

"Hey," Cameron prodded, her voice gentle as her own raiment folded away. "You wanted to come with. I could've left you with a duplicate, but you said no, remember?"

Scyelen whined, but she let go of Cameron and took a step back. Beside me, a plain pair of jeans and a bland t-shirt condensed around Dancing Breeze's momentarily nude body. My own Style put me in tight white yoga pants and a silky embroidered tube-top in dark red.

Scyelen remained nude and watched as Cameron's Style manifested her usual black top and pleated miniskirt with fishnet stockings and heelless kneeboots. Scyelen studied Cameron's outfit for a long moment, before she activated her own Style.

The result was a see-through pink latex leotard with attached leather collar and lead in black with ornamental leather wrist and ankle cuffs. Cameron burst into giggles and pulled Scyelen into a hug. Scyelen blushed furiously and hid her face in Cameron's cleavage.

"I don't wanna pretend," Scyelen mumbled into Cameron's chest.

"I know," Cameron said. "But if you wear that in public there's no way this _doesn't_ end with me punching a police officer in the face."

"Pffff!" Scyelen snorted. "Okay. Yeah. I know, alright?" She sighed, lifted her head, and her latex leotard blurred away, reforming into a tiny black dress.

_That outfit would've been kind of unfashionable but only a little racy by Jovian standards,_ I couldn't help but think. _It would've been extremely unfashionable and weird but only mildly racy by Venusian standards. But here, in the dominant nation on the cradle of humanity, it's so obscene it's grounds for police action?_

A remnant of that feeling I'd gotten on Ganymede flashed through me again. That feeling that I belonged to a backwards and prudish society with a vastly inflated sense of its own virtue. I was embarrassed to be an Earthling.

"Eelesia?"

I blinked and found Cameron peering at me. I mentally shook myself and smiled sheepishly. "Right. So. Let's go."

I stepped off the ledge and fell two stories to the street below. My legs absorbed the impact easily. Cameron and Scyelen both tucked into parkour rolls to soften their landings. Dancing Breeze actually climbed down the face of the stately white building, but she moved with so much graceful precision that it looked more like a controlled fall than a climb.

I picked a direction and led the way at a casual stroll. "So, like I said, we're here to track down a will-o-wisp, because a will-o-wisp's etheric flame ought to provide the same bridge between your healing and a disembodied soul as a Spirit Mage's etheric mist." I clutched Lynette's figurine to my chest.

At my side, Cameron nodded. "Alright. How do we find... what exactly _is_ a will-o-wisp anyway?"

"A human possessed by a spirit of lost ways," I recited. "The rumors put him in this area on a regular basis, so we just need to hang out in town until I spot him and then we try to talk to him. You're mostly here to defend me if the Beacon tries to interfere."

"Alright," Cameron said. Scyelen and Dancing Breeze both nodded. "I've never dealt with a spirit possession before. What does being possessed by a spirit actually mean?"

Ooh. Interesting question. "What do you know about the ontology of magical entities?"

"I know fey, spirits, and thaumic mutants are all unrelated things," Cameron offered, "but not why. I'm not even sure what a spirit _is_."

"That's actually a good place to start," I told her. "A spirit, on a fundamental level, is an accumulation and convergence of mentally assigned non-physical properties that etch themselves into the, the thing-that-existed-before-the-Veil. A spirit forms when there is an intersection, an observational consensus, by many observers over an extended period of time, focused on one place or object. The important part is that these recordings are physical in the higher dimensions. And mana pools in the etchings."

Cameron nodded as we reached a corner and turned away from the roundabout.

"Most spirits never have any physical effects on our three dimensions," I continued. "If a popular painting in a museum 'knows' it is pretty, nothing interesting happens. But some spirits form when things are anthropomorphized."

"Ah," Cameron said. "And then you've got a bunch of mana with an opinion."

"Not... quite," I hedged. "You're half right. By itself a spirit is just a... collection of photo tags, more or less. But written in pure human connectomic rather than language. If it gets reinforced often enough by the same person, or if the spirit has collected enough mana and just anyone happens to wander by, the mana can form a connection and the spirit will earth itself in that person's brain. This permanently overwrites their personality where that personality disagrees with what the spirit is about, and plugs that person into the pool of collected mana. That happens _first_."

"First?" Cameron repeated.

"I'll get there," I said. "Anyway, most people this happens to gain something akin to a weak spell, a minor power they can use at will. It's usually something less useful, less powerful, less user-friendly, but more flexible than an equivalent magical girl spell. If they don't kill themselves practicing they can become very dangerous, but they're mortal, and basically still human. That's possession."

We made our way past a row of cute little shops and crossed an intersection to keep going in the same direction.

"Possession happens first. It requires the least mana. But if it doesn't happen," I continued, "and a spirit accumulates an order of magnitude more mana than it takes to earth itself in a brain, it can sometimes earth itself directly in its anchor, if that anchor is physically ubiquitous enough. When this happens, the result is called an elemental. They're rare, but physically powerful and often inhumanly single-minded." I took a breath. "Alternately, if a spirit manages to collect _another_ order of magnitude more mana without becoming an elemental, it doesn't need to earth itself. It spontaneously ravels and wakes up as a god."

Cameron's eyes widened. "Ohhh. That makes a bunch of things I've read suddenly make way more sense."

I grinned at her. "Yeah. And if you think about it, there's a sense in which souls are artificial gods?"

All three of them blinked at me. Cameron quirked an eyebrow. "What sense is that?"

"Our minds depend on the same kind of substrate, and we're also embodiments of huge quantities of mana with immense power," I mused. "I suppose it isn't really the same, because there's also a sense in which we're earthed in our bodies as human elementals. We're, like, part god, part machine, part elemental, like some kind of five dimensional cyborg, and this is where I suspect the comparison loses utility, if it ever had any..."

Cameron watched me babble with a fond smile. I trailed off, bit my lip, and shrugged, chuckling.

We walked on for a few minutes, crossing another street and entering the suburbs. I kept my Sight open, scanning for possessions, with occasional breaks to covertly observe Cameron's soul and confirm my earlier worry. Months. Maybe a year if she was lucky. I really hoped my plan was going to work.

After a little while, Cameron dropped back and put a hand on Dancing Breeze's shoulder. "Bree."

"I'm fine," Dancing Breeze muttered.

I slowed as I spotted traces of etherum in a grass and dirt parking lot across the street from us and opposite a post office.

"You're not," Cameron said softly.

"I didn't even get the worst of it," Dancing Breeze said. "Everyone's dealing. You're dealing. I can deal too."

"I did a lot of my dealing in advance," Cameron disagreed. "I'm a freak. That's not any less true because it's deliberate on my part. I want you to be okay, but," a flare of self-recrimination, "we already know my way doesn't work for you."

"Gals, over here," I spoke up, and the others absently moved to follow me, Scyelen tugging Cameron in my direction.

"Um," Dancing Breeze said. "It might eventually? Those things you said, when... I can't get it out of my head."

Scorch marks. Another trace of etherum led my gaze to a pair of tire tracks. One of the trees looked damaged, and there were a few scattered pieces of glass at its base. It was a classic will-o-wisp move. Imitate the tail lights of a car to lure an actual car into a collision. This was about the tamest example I'd ever heard of, though.

"It's like, I didn't understand it right," Dancing Breeze went on. "Or, like, it made sense but I couldn't put it into practice?" She shivered, and Scyelen reached out to pat her arm. "I just want... I don't _know_ what I want."

"Different parts of you might want different things," Cameron suggested. "Sometimes feelings contradict each other."

"I just want to stop feeling them on me because it kept almost being okay," Bree breathed out all at once. She froze, radiating confusion at her own words.

"Ah," Cameron said softly.

I reached out and pulled energy from the Veil. It was thin here, but clearing the bands of color from my surroundings did increase visibility slightly. I stared into the distance, closing my eyes to focus on my Sight, and slowly, carefully, turned in a circle, walking around the others so their souls wouldn't obscure my view.

"Do you mind if I make a guess?" Cameron asked.

"No...?" Dancing Breeze replied.

"What happened to you was... adjacent, to a desired sexual experience. Close enough that it counts _as_ a sexual experience rather than a violent one, to your mind," Cameron said. "But right now, the scary monster rape is the first and _only_ chapter in your sex life. It's _defining_ your sex life, while it ought to be a mere aberration." She sighed. "And I made that worse, probably."

"Nuh uh. You didn't make it worse, Cameron," Dancing Breeze said as the tension in her began to ease. "I'm... I _wish_ I'd... managed to see it your way."

"It's not your fault that you couldn't," Cameron said, and the self-recrimination returned. "I've spent _years_ wearing these lines of thought into my turn of mind. But I tried to change _your_ mind with an impassioned speech in the heat of the moment. I should've known better. That never works in real life."

"Well," Dancing Breeze said, a soft smile in her voice. "Thank you for trying."

There. A few blocks away. The doubled tangle of an earthed spirit. I stopped, looking a moment longer to be sure, but yes, that had to be him.

"Found him," I said, turning around.

Dancing Breeze was looking at Cameron with a smile and a kind of wistful frustration. "I think you're right about the other part, though. I _do_ feel like, I'm stuck in this state of sexual limbo, like I lost my virginity _wrong_ or something." She blushed. "You'd... I mean, you're... I mean, I wish you were a boy."

Cameron didn't react visibly, but her emotions got really complicated really fast. Oh right, she was a changeling, wasn't she. It was so easy to forget that she started out male. She was always so comfortable in her own skin. Cameron looked at Dancing Breeze and after a moment her emotions settled down all at once into a quiet resolve.

"Y'know," I broke in, popping up between them and snapping them out of their mutual staring. "There is such a thing as a Masculinity module, for changelings who have trouble adjusting. There's no reason you couldn't get one purely for the recreational applications."

"I, yeah, I'd heard of that," Cameron admitted. She looked at Dancing Breeze for a long moment. "Yeah. Maybe I will."

Dancing Breeze gulped. "Really?" Her eyes glazed a little as she imagined Cameron as a boy, and I felt Cameron's internal fidget of embarrassment. "That, um, that would be nice."

"I can do the installation for you, if you want," I offered. "That's most of the actual expense."

"You know what, sure. Thank you."

"Anyway," I said. "I found the will-o-wisp. Let's go talk to him."

* * *

 _June 4th, 2027_  
_Sebring, Florida_  
_Abandoned Middle School_

We stood before a squat, blocky brick complex wrapped in scrub grass and chain-link fences. A few sickly palm trees drooped over the beige metal siding around the nearest building, framing a glass front covered in plywood.

I pried one of the boards loose and ducked through, with Cameron and her companions right behind me. It was dead dark, but a flickering yellow-green light seeped out from the hallway ahead.

Following it, I found an impressive collection of camping supplies and a skinny, blonde teenage boy laying on a cafeteria table under a floating ring of yellow-green slow-motion flame, playing a puzzle game on an old phone.

I motioned for the others to hang back. "Owen Larken?"

The boy jumped violently, letting out a high-pitched scream as the phone went flying out of his hands. He tumbled off the table and hit the floor with a thump. I winced.

He popped up from behind the table and scrambled to his feet, sweating panic. "I can explain!"

Behind me, Scyelen snickered. I put my hands up in a calming gesture. "It's okay! We're not here to get you in trouble. My name is Eelesia. You are Owen, right?"

Owen began to nod before sharply stopping himself, wary and nervous. Then he finally took in the sight of us properly, and his eyes widened, moving over each of us. "Whoa," he whispered under his breath. "Babe city... Um. Yes! I'm totally Owen. Hi."

"I'm very glad to meet you, Owen," I said, clutching Lynette's figurine in front of my chest. "We need your help."

* * *

"All four of you are really magical girls? Like, actual, naked whirly lightshow, calling your attacks, roofhopping magical girls?"

We were all seated around Owen's camp stove. Bree was next to me in a chair, and Cameron was across from me between Owen and Scyelen on a bench. I held Lynette's figurine in my lap, broken into two pieces. Some of the bonds were severed, but several remained.

"Yes, Owen," Cameron repeated indulgently with a girlish giggle.

"We don't have to call our attacks after we do the naked whirly lightshow, and it's not really much of a lightshow, or very whirly," Scyelen specified. "It's more, kaleidoscopic and glowy, and it doesn't involve striking poses."

I carefully placed my fingers along the larger piece, lining up with the remaining bonds. I twisted, snapping the wood, and more than half the remaining bonds broke with it.

"That's so cool! And you can really see me make the fire?" Owen asked. He glanced up, and made a curvy line slash through his ring of flame. "I knew I wasn't crazy. I could trick people by making lights. But no one would believe I have this power, even if I used it right in front of them."

"Yeah, the Veil does that," Cameron said. "It sucks, sometimes. But it's all or nothing. If it hides _you_ , it can't hide anything _from_ you, and it definitely hides magical girls."

I nodded absently. That was the basic truth of the Veil that pretty much everyone knew. But there had to be more to it than that. After all, getting Dad to use sorcery during our initial escape _had_ cleanly and immediately liberated him from the Veil. Once could've been a fluke, but twice was a pattern.

Cameron gave Owen a thoughtful look. "Is that why you're living here, alone?"

I examined the figurine and snapped off another piece of wood, making four. Only a slim few bonds clung to existence.

Owen fidgeted. "I tried to tell my mom, but she wouldn't believe me until I just... went all flamey everywhere, and then she, it was like she forgot it was me? She went for the shotgun, so I ran away. I can run really fast now, if I cover myself in my fire first. She told the police I'd tried to burn her alive, to burn the house down, I don't know..."

"I'm sorry," Cameron said, putting a hand on his thigh. "Something like that happened to me, too. I got lucky, afterwards, but it must've been a lot harder, without my, advantages."

Owen inhaled sharply, and blushed at the touch. "Uh... Um... Uh... Yeah."

I glanced up and smiled wryly. Owen was fast developing a crush on her, and Cameron couldn't help herself once she noticed. I looked down, positioned my fingers, and snapped the last piece. With the figurine in five pieces, non of the bonds remained. Lynette was free.

"So, uh, how does. How can my fire help you guys bring someone back from the dea—whoa holy shit what is that?!"

Lynette's soul unfurled in front of me, contorting through hyperspace in a dazzlingly complex dance, before the familiar form I knew emerged, luminous and beautiful in my Sight.

"Whoa naked ghost chick what?" Owen blurted, staring.

"Lyn?" I asked, my voice cracking. "Can you hear me?"

"Um, she's nodding," Owen said. "What is even happening."

My eyes snapped on to Owen with enough intensity to make him squeak. "You're seeing the body image projected by Lyn's soul. I need you fill that image in with etherum. Your flames."

"You, want me to set the ghost girl on fire?" Owen asked uncertainly. "Are you sure? I mean, I can't actually _burn_ things, but."

I nodded. "That is exactly what I want you to do."

"Eelesia knows what she's talking about," Cameron said. "And if you do this for us, I'll certainly make it worth your while, promise."

"Uh?" Owen stared at Cameron for a few seconds, doubting what he'd heard and what she'd obviously intended to imply. He blushed and turned towards Lynette. "Well, I mean, sure, okay. I'm happy to help. Yeah."

Owen reached out, and etheric flames bloomed into being around Lynette's soul. Then those flames _caught_ , exploding into brilliance as they were sucked into the shape of a girl. Owen yelped, recoiling like he'd been stung, but Cameron caught him before he could topple onto the floor again.

Lynette hovered above me, one arm covering her breasts, a perfect sculpture in pure white flame. She waved. "Heyy evwe'un."

Lynette's words were slurred. She couldn't feel her mouth. The only reason I wasn't already holding her tight was that I knew she wouldn't be able to feel that either. Cameron got up and moved around to put her hand on the back of Lynette's neck.

"Did I do that?" Owen gasped. "I didn't know I could do that."

Fifteen seconds. " _Perfect Incarnation_."

And white flame gave way to flesh. Lynette cringed, her face contorting in pain, but she laughed through it as her body reformed. Finally, the last of the brilliant flame extinguished, and Lynette's feet slapped down on the linoleum.

I slammed into her before she even had a chance to activate her Style, and squeezed her nude body as tight as I could. "It worked! You're okay! Are you okay?"

"Oof, yes, it didn't even hurt that much," Lynette said, snuggling into my chest. "Mmm. Li-zi."

"You weren't awake that whole time, were you?" I asked.

"No." She rubbed her face against my shoulder, kittenish. "The last thing I remember is your knee breaking my face." She lifted her head to look up at me and smirk. "Thanks for that, by the way."

I giggled helplessly and buried my face in Lynette's soft ravenblack hair. "Any time."

"Did they really...?" I heard Owen ask.

"Lyn was being mind-controlled," Cameron explained. "I think. I got knocked out." She looked over at us. "Welcome back, Lyn."

"Thanks," Lynette replied dryly, peeking around my shoulder.

I leaned down and caught Lynette's lips in a kiss. "I love you."

She grinned at me. I kissed her again and she moaned into my mouth, pushing up against me, and probed my lips with her tongue. Oh, I'd missed her. The kiss went on for a long time. The others were talking, but I didn't hear the words. There was nothing beyond Lynette's compact warmth against my body, her supple skin under my hands, her heated lips and eager tongue on my mouth. I poured every last drop of my happy relief into the kiss, holding her close and basking.

All of the warm and fuzzy feelings as well as the guilty voyeuristic thrill echoing from not-Lynette collapsed into startled alarm.

"Holy fuck what is that!"

I jolted out of the kiss, snapping back to reality to find a circle of pitch darkness under our feet and a cluster of black tentacles climbing Lynette's legs.

"Gah!" Lynette yelped, startled. She looked down at the tentacles and pouted. "Oh. It's you."

There was no voice, and only the faintest hint of aura, but I was still thankful when Lynette shooed me out of the dark circle. I moved over to the others as the tentacles crept up her body to cover her grimacing face.

Bree was gone. I didn't want to use my Sight with a Horror on top of us, but Cameron noticed me looking around.

"Bree went out to keep watch," Cameron whispered. "I think she wanted to be alone."

I nodded.

Even faster than they'd appeared, the tentacles retracted, slithering backwards down Lynette's body into the floor. The dark circle vanished and took the aura with it. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Well," Cameron said, deadpan. "That was disappointing."

As a sports bra and bike shorts condensed onto her body, Lynette gave Cameron _such_ a look. I buried my face in my hands and giggled.

"No seriously what the hell was that?" Owen asked weakly.

"My patron. Don't worry, it's gone," Lynette said, meandering over to lean on me. "It... felt like it wanted to give me something? Like—ooh! New spells!"

"Ooh!" I agreed. "What do they do?"

Lynette's eyes glazed. "I dunno, but they're called Void Step and Ghost Shroud. Hang on, I wanna try 'em out. Fear the silent void! Awaken, righteous Shade of the Fierce Huntress!"

Owen squeaked.

As soon as her raiment settled into place, Lynette bounced eagerly... and then frowned. She looked down at her feet with a confused expression, then hopped forwards and backwards a few times. I tilted my head at her, inquisitive.

"I'm using Void Step but it isn't doing anything," Lynette complained.

I opened my Sight. I could see the magic as she used the spell. It was doing something. "I think it's making a small volume of matter ripple in the fourth dimension?"

"Lemme try the otheeep!" Lynette's mass _shifted_ , becoming offset from normal space. Her feet went out from under her, but she didn't fall, instead tumbling weightlessly in the air. "What? I'm? Oh fuck yeah, I can phase! Oh _that's_ what Void Step is for!"

Lynette twisted, pushed off against the ripple of a Void Step, and flew into the ceiling, passing through it like a ghost. A moment later she came flying intangibly through the wall, laughing, and snapped her mass back into alignment with normal space. She landed and jogged to a stop, flopping into my arms.

"We are going to exploit the _fuck_ out of this, aren't we," Lynette giggled.

I giggled too. "That is a reasonable prediction, yes."

"Okay, this time I have to give the eldritch motherfucker major points," Lynette said. "It was, like, actually helpful."

"Oh, speaking of which, I met your brother," I told her.

Lynette choked. "What? How? When?"

"He found me on Ganymede to tell me where to find you," I explained. "He looked about seven. And he said he misses you."

"Ugh," Lynette grunted. "That is so not fair."

I patted her and kissed the side of her face.

"So!" Cameron spoke up, turning towards Owen. "If I'm not mistaken, we just did something very rare and valuable."

"You did," I agreed, snuggling Lynette.

Owen grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Cameron said, kneeling on the bench next to Owen so her cleavage was right in his face. "In fact, we might need you to do this again, so I want to be sure to make this time worth your while."

Owen gulped and averted his gaze. "I, uh, was happy to help?"

Cameron rolled her eyes. "You can be happy to help and still get something you want out of this."

Owen glanced up, all the way up, at Cameron's face. "Thanks, but, I wouldn't know what to ask for."

"Now that," Cameron said, lips curling into a genuine smile, "is a filthy lie."

"Saywhut?" Owen blurted.

"I mean, you know perfectly well that you want to ask me to have sex with you," Cameron said wryly.

Owen blanched. "No no no! I couldn't ask you that!"

"Are you sure?" Cameron asked, doubtful.

"Yes! I'd never try to take advantage of a girl like that!" Owen exclaimed. "I'm not the kind of jerk who tells a girl he'll help her but only if she'll have sex with him! That's nasty and you deserve better!"

Cameron stared at him, her mouth working silently for a few moments, before she looked over at me. "There's a fundamental disconnect, here, but fuck if I know how to bridge it."

I giggled and focused on the echo of his emotions. Owen was incredulous and worried like he'd just stepped on a trap. Buried under that, he hated the idea that his new crush might actually be a whore and flinched away from the possibility. Oh dear. He thought Cameron was testing him, and Cameron thought he was just playing coy.

"I think this is a case of incompatible orientations," I offered, mouthing the word, _mononormative,_ at Cameron as soon as Owen looked away.

Cameron blinked once and I felt her fight off the urge to smack her face into her palm.

"...but I'm not gay?" Owen said, now thoroughly confused and edging slightly away from Cameron's flat expression.

"No, not like that," I sighed. "Actually, I think you _should_ hire Owen, Cameron. Legitimately. If you two team up you could sell resurrections and get very rich."

That sufficed to distract Owen. "Rich? How rich?"

Surprisingly, Cameron was almost more interested in that than Owen was. "Rich enough to buy property in a major city?"

"Probably," I said. "Most teams that lose a member in combat would pay a _lot_ to get her back that week instead of a year later. Dollars _or_ dice."

"Rich..." Owen moaned, retreating into a day-dream.

"Wait," Cameron said. "Is there some way to save Martin you know about that's just really expensive?"

"Not that I know about," I admitted.

Cameron slumped. "He's my responsibility. I can't just leave him trapped halfway horrific like that. There has to be a way to separate him from that thing."

I froze. "Say that again?"

Cameron blinked. "There has to be a way to separate him from that thing?"

"Oh gods," I groaned, hanging my head. "I've been stupid."

"Li-zi?" Lynette prompted. "What is it?"

"I've been thinking about this as a magical problem," I said. "A problem only magic could solve, and magic had already failed. But it's much simpler than that."

"Alright," Cameron said, perking up. "How?"

"Jovian medical technology," I said. "They only have one kind of medicine, because they don't really need anything else. Brain scans and cell printers. They extract minds from failing bodies all the time. We don't need to _fix_ the problem if we can simply _extract_ Martin from it."

Cameron let out a breath. "That. That's how rejuvenation works. Of course. Martin's brain _is_ still there. It could work."

I nodded. "Give me and Lyn a few days to lurk around on Ganymede so I can get fluent in _joviengo_ and figure out exactly where to take him. Martin's stable, as far as either of us could tell, right?"

"Right," Cameron agreed.

"Take him home," I suggested. "I'll contact you when I have what we need."

Cameron nodded, pensive. "What am I going to tell Darrek? He deserves to know, but he's veilbound. He won't even be able to look at Martin. I _can't_ tell him the truth."

But if I was right, "Maybe you can."

Cameron's head snapped up.

"It's a theory with only two observations to support it," I said, "but I'm reasonably certain that if a veilbound baseline does anything with a direct magical effect, even by accident, that counts as something magical about that person, and the Veil lifts. When I was younger, I broke through the Veil by accident just by playing with dice."

Cameron stared for a long moment and then let out a helpless, hopeful laugh. "Alright. I think I can manage that."

* * *

 _June 5th, 2027_  
_Upper Konassil, Cytheria_  
_Eirian Cottage_

I opened the door and let Lynette and myself into the cottage. It was dim with a deep greenish glow that filtered in through the windows. Most of the lights were off and everything was quiet as I shut the door and padded towards the bedroom.

Dad was asleep, sprawled face-down on top of the covers. He was still fully dressed, though in context that only meant his red silk pants and vest.

Lynette wrapped her arms around my waist from behind me. "Go on. I'm going to go make pancakes."

I turned to smile at her in gratitude, and dipped to kiss her lips. She rolled her eyes affectionately and released me. With a little push, she padded into the kitchen, raiment reverting as she moved.

I used a little violet energy to slip Dad's pants and vest off without waking him, then slid the covers out from under him. Once I had that done, I dismissed my raiment and crawled, nude, onto the bed.

Dad stirred, but still didn't wake, as I wriggled into his arms and cuddled up, pressing my back to his chest and nestling his manhood against my butt. His arm tightened around my waist, and I felt his cock start to swell as he nuzzled my neck, taking in a deep breath.

"Mmm'lesia," he murmured unconsciously.

I smiled and squeezed his arm, though it was a bittersweet joy that it was no longer Mom's name that passed Dad's sleeping lips instead of mine.

I squirmed, letting his erection slip between my thighs as I ground my butt against his pelvis. He sniffed, tickling my neck with his breath as awareness slowly returned to him.

"Eelesia?" he murmured, and then, "Eelesia!!"

Dad jolted up, and I turned myself enough to look at his face.

"I'm back."

Dad crushed me against his chest, burying his face in my hair. "You're alive. I was so worried."

"I'm fine, Cameron's fine. Lyn's fine too," I said. "I didn't, I didn't save Jasmine, but we're okay. I promise."

I turned over the rest of the way, wrapping my thighs around Dad's hips as I pushed him onto his back and snuggled up on top of him. Dad hugged me tight, held me close, our bodies pressed together skin to skin. The only way we could be physically closer was if—I reached behind me and found his cock, guiding the tip down to my entrance as I dragged my body down far enough to line us up. I was as wet as he was hard, and he eased into me, filling me slowly, with a soft, contented moan.

"I'm here," I whispered.


	14. CAMERON

_June 5th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

Blocky rooftops streamed by as Scyelen carried Martin and I through the fading evening, using her mimicry of Bree's flight spell. I clung to her back with an unresponsive, unchained, but still glued Martin slung over my shoulder.

Scyelen's raiment turned out to have the most blatantly sexualized design I'd seen outside my own raiment, even if it didn't _quite_ cross the line that mine did. A low-riding, metallic pink enameled c-string and a pair of pink enameled nipple pasties were the only concession _to_ that line, and both were sculpted after the form of what they covered. She had matching pink scale-plated armor on her forearms and outer thighs, over gauzy lavender sleeves, and a light silver mantle connected to the armor by thin silver chains.

She set us down on the roof, and I let us into the stairwell. A quick Scanner Pulse detected Darrek on the fourth floor, inside the apartment. After a moment's consideration, I decided to leave my raiment active. Making this weirder for Darrek would probably help Eelesia's idea work. Scyelen followed my lead, slinking down the steps with a metallic whisper.

I had a key, now, but I knocked when we reached our door, shifting so the first thing Darrek saw would be my face and not Martin's ass. The door opened.

"Yeah what'do ya want you oh shit Cameron!" Darrek exclaimed. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Getting kidnapped," I said. I hefted my passenger. "I found Martin. I brought him home."

Darrek's mouth hung open for a moment. He tried to look at Martin's head, but his gaze seemed to pass right over it. He could see Martin's glued feet just fine, though. "Kidnapped. What the fuck, Cameron?" He blinked, taking in my raiment. "Is that one of Zoey's? No, definitely not her size _or_ budget. Where in the hell did you get..." He stopped, seeing Scyelen for the first time, and her own implausible outfit. "What the _actual fuck_ , Cameron?"

I offered Darrek a tired smile as I pushed past him and carried Martin into the apartment. "I need to show you something before I explain. Let me get Martin settled."

Darrek followed me, leaving Scyelen to shut the front door. "Is he hurt? He's not moving. What's wrong with him?"

I maneuvered Martin through the door to his room and set him down on the far side of his bed, arranging him on his side facing the wall. "He's in stasis."

"Stasis," Darrek repeated flatly. "Okay. How? Why is he naked and what is that stuff on him?"

"I told you, I need to show you something before I explain," I repeated as I pulled the sheet up to cover Martin's lower half. I straightened up and moved around the bed to give Darrek a hug.

"Yeah okay, I'm glad you're safe, welcome home and all that shit," Darrek huffed. "Now show me what?"

I pulled away and reached into my Pocket. "This." From a seam in the air, I drew a piece of posterboard the size of a disk case. It had a basic sorcery array carved into it, with a tetrahedral mana die taped in place. I handed it to Darrek. "Read the part at the top. Out loud."

"What?" He looked at the board. "Xio-oul-xio? Wha—augh!"

The array lit up as he spoke, and a point of prismatic light appeared six inches above the posterboard. It wasn't the most convincing demonstration of magic, but this wasn't about convincing _Darrek_. It was about convincing the _Veil_.

Darrek recoiled like he'd just taken a sledgehammer to his skull, and I _felt_ the blowback ripple through me. Dropping the magic light, he staggered and tripped into the wall, but I darted forward and caught him before he could hit the floor.

"What the fuck was that?" Darrek groaned. He shook his head and only then seemed to notice that he was resting in my arms. He stared at me with a deeply confused expression.

A giggle escaped me as I set him back on his feet. "Unless I'm wrong, that was the Veil letting go of you."

"Since when are you freaky-strong?" Darrek asked, turning to glance at Martin for a moment. Then he froze and spun back around, leaping away from the bed. "Sonovabitch! There's a squid on his head!"

"Worse," I said. "Much worse." I bent down and picked up the posterboard. "But I can explain, now."

"Why, how, I looked right at him, how did I not see the fucking tentacles?!" Darrek shouted.

"The Veil didn't let you," I said, waving the magical light in front of his face.

Darrek swatted at it, snatching it out of my hand. "What the shitfuck is the Veil?!"

I took a deep breath and began to explain. The hidden world of magic, and the hard division enforced by a system-wide perception filter. How now that he'd done magic, he was on the other side of that division. How there were two competing hiveminds of stuffed animals who were probably responsible for the Veil. I explained the basics of what a magical girl was, and that I was one. I explained what I knew of Martin's abduction and what had happened to him without going into detail about the lair of the Elder Brain. I explained Eelesia's plan to save him.

"And you can just, go to Jupiter," Darrek said, with a look on his face like he wished he was drunk. "Because magic."

"Getting anywhere through the Crossroads is a little more complicated than that," I said, "but basically yes."

Darrek stared at me for a long moment, saying nothing. Suddenly his eyes snapped into focus and he let out an abrupt, "Hah!" He pointed at my raiment. "Oh. My god. That's not a costume! That is literally your mighty morphing armor!"

I snorted. "Yes. This is my raiment. Every magical girl has one. You could even say a magical girl _is_ her raiment."

"Are they always that illegal to wear in public?" Darrek asked, eyeing my nude pelvic region and exposed breasts before glancing out at where Scyelen was curled up in one of the armchairs, dozing.

"Actually no," I said, smirking. "I'm a paragon of sluttiness. Most magical girls are paragons of less interesting things."

That got a laugh. "Wait, does that mean you have slut powers?"

"I have _healing_ powers," I explained with a giggle. "And, like, shields, but mostly the healing powers. Oh, and this." I reached out and used Duplicate. "I can be in two places at once, but only the real me can use magic."

Darrek's gaze bounced back and forth between the two of me. "You mean you could've turned into twins whenever you wanted?"

"No, not around you guys, because of the Veil," I said, grinning. I produced another me on my other side. "But I can now. I can make twelve, before I'm out of power, and there's no time limit. This is how I was planning to handle my Virgin Therapy idea."

"Fuck a choir of angels, you're a..." Darrek trailed off, grin fading into an abstracted expression. "Are angels a thing? Are we gonna get smote for _The Noodle Incident_?"

"Nope," I said cheerfully. I dispelled my copies. "I mean, there're gods, but, like, if there were any truth to religion, it wouldn't have survived the Veil."

"Well that's a relief," Darrek said. "So what about your friend out there? What's her story?"

"Her name's Scyelen," I said. "She was, y'know, _there_. I'm keeping her as a sex slave to stop her from throwing herself back into the rape pit."

Darrek slowly cocked his head. "What."

"She's quirky," I defended. "She's also hardcore submissive, and I think really deprived. She didn't want to leave until I... offered."

"No," Darrek said, drawing out the sound. "Go back. Rape pit?"

Oops. I'd intended to gloss over that part. Oh well. "Magical girls can't have children the normal way, but our bodies and minds are resilient in ways mortals aren't. Which apparently makes us ideal surrogates for eldritch brain parasites."

Darrek's face fell into a deadpan, but there was a wickedly gleeful undertone when he said, "So, to summarize, you got abducted and now your alien baby is eating Martin's brain."

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, I think we're done here. Do you want to introduce yourself to Scyelen?"

It was actually nice, I mused, that Darrek was teasing me instead of making a show of sensitivity and concern. He was a boisterous ass sometimes, but he respected me. He _trusted me_ to be okay. He was cool like that.

"What the hell, sure," Darrek said.

* * *

"I want you to think about the most extreme fantasies you've ever had," I instructed Scyelen. "Describe them to me."

We were both nude, kneeling on Darrek's bed, alone in his room. My lips grazed Scyelen's ear as I spoke, my breasts pooling on her shoulders as I pinned her arms to her sides and held her like I was trying to crush the air out of her.

"I..." Scyelen sucked in a breath, trembling as she pressed herself against me. "When I was younger..." Inhale. "I used to..." Inhale. "Have this daydream. I'd be..." Inhale. "Taken. My arms and legs, cut off." Inhale. "Not in a way that hurt, just, so I'd be helpless anyway." Inhale. "But then, after they strapped a vibrator into me." Inhale. "They'd put me in a tub, and pour rubber cement." Inhale. "There'd be breathing tubes, or a mask, or magic, to keep me alive." Inhale. "But I'd be buried, sealed in, the cement would harden." Inhale. "And I knew I'd never move again, cumming until I died." Inhale.

I nuzzled her, and she shivered against my body. Her skin was flushed and hot, and I could sense the engorged throbbing of her dripping cunt. Reciting that fantasy had really turned her on.

"I bet you like being in small spaces." I said.

Scyelen nodded, squirming.

"Is there another?" I asked. "One with skin-on-skin sex in it?"

"I..." Scyelen shuddered, trying to free a hand to touch herself, but I didn't let her. "I... yes. There's... the one where." Inhale. "Like in old movies, when schools had gym showers?" Inhale. "I'd get dragged into the boys side and duct taped to the wall." Inhale. "Head covered so I couldn't speak or even make pleading faces." Inhale. "So I wouldn't have to decide between begging them to stop and begging them for more." Inhale. "And day after day, all the boys would look forward to using me when they came in to shower." Inhale. "Like fucking me, unloading their cum in me, was the best part of their clean-up routine."

"Thank you for sharing that," I breathed, grinding my pussy against her spine. "It was hot. And it gave me a few ideas."

Scyelen trembled nervously even as her arousal spiked. "What're, what're you going to do to me?"

I held in a wicked grin. It was adorably obvious that she'd been waiting her whole life to say those words. The stupid-sexy horrorspawn must not have given her the chance.

"Tonight? I'm just going to tie you up and play with you," I told her, injecting an ominous lilt into my voice as I activated Duplicate.

The other Cameron slipped out and returned with a box of elastic cloth bandages, which she handed to me before dispelling. Once I had the time, I was going to order a bunch of actual bondage gear, but until then I was stuck improvising. We kept some bondage equipment in the studio, but all of that stuff technically belonged to Zoey and I didn't want to borrow her gear for something personal when I hadn't even met her yet. The bandages were a lucky break. If Scyelen didn't have a mummification fetish I'd _eat_ those bandages.

I snatched Scyelen's wrists and forced her arms up over her head. I used Duplicate, and the other Cameron grabbed her arms, keeping Scyelen in place while I took a roll of bandages and started winding it around her head. I alternated, wrapping her head alone and then going around her arms, binding them to her head against her ears. As I wrapped her face, I left only a small gap under her nose to make breathing easier, then spiraled upwards, cinching her arms together.

"You don't see," I said, raising my voice so she could hear me even with her ears covered. "You don't speak. Your body goes where I put it and you don't get a say. Nothing above your neck matters anymore."

The other Cameron slipped off the bed and out of the room while I pushed Scyelen down on her front, tying her wrists to the bed's frame under the headboard. Moving around behind her, I grabbed her ankles and pulled, spreading her legs and stretching her bound arms taut. With a small muffled gasp, Scyelen arched her back, lifting her hips to show off the glistening cleft between her thighs.

"These holes between your legs are the real you," I continued, doing my best to hit the right kinky nuance. It was important that these words sounded like a compliment. "A faceless fuckdoll pretending to be a person."

Scyelen let out a muffled moan.

As I wrapped her ankles and tied one to each forward corner of the bed, my copy slipped silently back into the room with Darrek in hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but I held up a finger to silence him. While the other Cameron undressed him, I worked my way up Scyelen's right leg, wrapping her knee and thigh to the right side of the bed's frame. Moving to her other side, I wrapped her left knee and thigh to the left side of the bed's frame, then grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under her hips.

"And a faceless fuckdoll is all you need to be," I breathed, trailing a fingertip down her spine, down her butt, through the slick folds of her pussy. I grabbed her ass with both hands and squeezed harshly, wringing a whimper of need out of her. "Lovely. A lovely precious toy. Used, delighted in, and kept safe for next time."

"You're weirdly good at this," Darrek commented.

Scyelen squeaked in surprise, tensing up under my hands. Her vulva pulsed, contracting as her inner muscles clenched and her arousal surged. I'd deliberately implied we'd be alone and Darrek wouldn't be involved, just so she could have this moment of trepidation when I brought Darrek in after she was already helpless.

The other Cameron murmured something to Darrek, then dispelled—after murmuring, "It's what she needs."

Backing off, I straightened up at the foot of the bed and admired the view. Prone, face-down, arms bound straight up with her head, legs tied outward and forced apart. Ass up, hips trembling, to frame her gorgeously flushed vulva between her thighs. Compared to me, Scyelen was smaller and waifish, but she had fantastic hips and a perky little bubble butt.

"Just look at that hot pussy," I said to Darrek, letting the words flow. "It comes pre-lubed and everything. Go ahead and stick your cock inside. Being filled with cock is good for it. And it's not like that lovely fuck hole belongs to anyone who might not want your dick in her."

"Cleared," Darrek whispered. "She isn't."

"Magic healing," I whispered back. "Disease does not _exist_ in my presence."

"Huh. Right."

Darrek crawled onto the bed, and Scyelen whimpered. I wanted to bury myself in her. I wanted to lick her, feel her, knead her. I wanted to sink my fist into her juicing hole and wear her like a hand puppet while she came on my arm. I wanted...

Darrek straddled Scyelen's hips and teased her folds with the tip of his dick. She squirmed, struggling against the bandages, hips writhing side to side until, with a wet splurt of juices, Darrek drove his cock down into her and she stilled with a strangled moan of rapturous surrender.

In the months since I'd become a magical girl, throughout a truly glorious variety of sexual encounters, I'd never once missed my penis. My female body was an upgrade in every possible way, and I'd never felt like I'd lost anything about myself in the change. Even now, looking at Scyelen's delectable cock-stuffed nethers, I mostly wanted to lay next to her and get us _both_ proneboned into a satisfied puddle.

But I also kind of wanted plunge a hard throbbing dick into her myself, and feel her slick walls sheathe _me_ as I slammed my hips into her ass.

With the thought of a Masculinity module on my mind and my implicit promise to Bree, that impulse had grown from a niggling curiosity into something I couldn't ignore. I didn't _want_ to care that I'd never had sex as a boy—I certainly didn't care about anything _else_ I hadn't done as a boy—but I did. There wasn't any part of sex I didn't want to experience for myself.

There also wasn't any reason to let that bother me.

Like an emotional splinter, I dug out of my mind a lingering feeling. A fear, that I could only qualify as a Real Girl because I _hadn't_ ever really _lived_ as a boy, and that I could only really live _if_ I qualified as a Real Girl. It was a stupid fear, now that I looked at it plainly. It didn't even contain a coherent definition of 'real girl'. My identity wasn't in the shape of my body. My body was my instrument and its form _ought_ to yield to my goals. But being a girl just felt right, and that was reason enough to keep that feeling _as_ one of those goals.

The wet slap of flesh on flesh drew me out of my thoughts.

Scyelen was almost ready to cum, if I was reading her nerves right. I sneaked over to the closet and pulled out a tripod. Moving over to the side of the bed, I noisily extended the legs and squeaked the feet across the floor.

"I'm glad we're recording this," I said loudly.

Scyelen jolted. "Rhcvvinn?!"

Without a break in his pounding thrusts, Darrek glanced over, saw that I did not, in fact, have a camera pointed at them, and opened his mouth in a silent laugh. He adjusted his angle and sped up.

"Whoops, I think I just launched this as a livestream," I commented.

Scyelen thrashed, but her burst of panic looped back on itself with nowhere to go. Darrek fucked her against bed, driving her to new heights of pleasure as she tried to escape only to run headlong into a titanic orgasm that lit up her nervous system in a torrent. Her muffled scream echoed off the walls and probably woke the neighbors, and it went on and on until she ran completely out of breath.

I tapped Darrek and flopped down at Scyelen's side. Taking my cue, he pulled out of Scyelen's limp form and moved over to me, sliding his cock into me as I started to unwrap Scyelen's head.

"It's okay," I said. "I lied. I promise we're way too professional to pull anything like that for real. I just knew you'd cum harder if I said it."

Scyelen just moaned, dismissive. I giggled and kissed her neck as I settled in, lifting my hips to enjoy coming home to Darrek's cock.

"Mmm, say, Scyelen," I spoke up. "How do you feel about tentacle rape?"

* * *

 _June 6th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Mission District_

"So you do porn, huh," Scyelen said as we jogged over the city on parallel shield paths. She slipped a little, having less practice than me at walking on my shields, but she hadn't fallen yet.

"Yeah," I said. "Darrek and Martin hired me on a few months ago. It's satisfying work, and I don't just mean that I get to cum a lot."

Scyelen giggled. "I see." She blushed. "Um, I'm probably not the, performing type, but I kinda want to watch you. It. You in it."

I grinned inwardly. She was going to like the surprise I had for her, then.

We reached a familiar roof and slowed to a stop. I jiggled the broken lock on the roof access until it came open, and led Scyelen down to an apartment door. I knocked.

After a short wait, the door opened, revealing a large muscular man with a scowl on his face. "Oh good, you're not dead."

"Hi, Nick," I greeted him cheerfully. "Can we come in?"

Nick stepped back and let us in, throwing the door shut once we were through. "What the fuck happened to you? You flake on me, no explanation, no warning. I hadda drop three weeks pay on this mouthy hispanic chick to avoid an incident, 'cause _you_ weren't here to keep your end."

"It couldn't be helped," I said. "And I'm sure that girl needed the money more than you did."

Nick grunted. "I'd say that's arguable." He sighed. "Whatever. Who's your friend?"

I tugged Scyelen out from behind me. "Nick, meet Scyelen."

Scyelen waved shyly. "Hi."

"S'up," Nick said neutrally.

"I need you to let Scyelen stay with you for a few days," I explained.

"Are you fucking with me?" Nick exclaimed. "I got work. I can't just leave some strange girl unsupervised in my place!"

"That's fine," I said. "You can tie her up and keep her in your closet, nice and secure."

"What."

Scyelen ducked her head. "I'll be good."

"Is this a joke?" Nick asked.

"You and Scyelen are mutual solutions to a problem," I told him. "You need willing holes. She needs a place to be stashed. She's got willing holes. You've got a place to stash her."

Nicks mouth worked silently for a moment before he said, "Having a girl tied up in my closet could get hard to explain real fast."

"You can share me," Scyelen spoke up, blushing. "And if not, I'll do my best to keep quiet when you have company. I'll be fine if you don't let me out at all. I can use magic instead of eating or drinking and if I do that I don't need, other breaks, either... at least not more than once a week..."

After a moment, Nick hesitantly asked, "Did Cameron explain...?"

"Tentacles," Scyelen breathed, nodding rapidly.

Something in Scyelen's expression seemed to finally convince Nick. He threw up his hands and led the way into his bedroom. I pointed Scyelen towards the closet. She nodded, and her simulated outfit dissolved, exposing her trembling body and wet thighs to Nick's gaze.

I opened up Nick's closet, and reached into my Pocket, pulling out a set of sturdy leather cuffs. I closed the cuffs around the hanger bar, on either side of a mounting bracket, and left them there as I turned to Scyelen.

Gently, I gathered Scyelen's hair and tied it into a high tail, then I grabbed her chin and said, "Open."

Pulling a brand-new ball-gag from my Pocket, I pressed it into her mouth and belted it in place. "Did I get the right size? Is it comfortable?"

With a deep blush, Scyelen nodded. Her lips wrapped perfectly around the black rubber ball as she glanced past me at Nick and squirmed under his eyes. Smirking, I slapped my hand between her legs. The wet smack made her jump, but her squeak of surprise faded into a needy moan as I sank two fingers into her and used her vagina as a handhold to tug her closer to me.

Releasing her, I reached into my Pocket and retrieved several modified leather belts. Two went around Scyelen's waist, low and high. One went around her midriff. Two went around her ribs, below and above her breasts. And one went around her neck.

"Lay down, head against the closet wall," I instructed.

Scyelen dropped down and stretched out on her back, half inside the closet. I put my hands out and two duplicate Cameron's appeared. Together, they grabbed the belts and lifted Scyelen up to waist-height on Nick. I pulled out a set of clear plastic straps and fed them through the clasps on the cuffs and the clasps on Scyelen's belts, suspending her.

"Grab your ankles," I told her.

While she held onto her ankles, splaying her glistening nethers open for me and Nick, I read the nerves in her back and the pressure on her innards to adjust all of the straps until she was comfortable. That done, I pulled out a fresh roll of elastic bandages and wrapped her wrists to her shins, then wrapped each ankle to the hanger bar.

The other two Camerons dispelled. I put the palm of my hand on Scyelen's slick vulva, and pushed. She gasped, lifting her head to pin me with pleading eyes as she tried to hump herself against my hand.

"Neck straight," I barked.

She complied. I pushed hard, and harder, until finally Scyelen's head bumped the back wall of the closet. I estimated the amount of force I was using, and tentatively concluded that she was resistant enough to being swung. Backing off, I nodded and glanced at Nick.

"Good enough?" I asked impishly. "She's not getting out of this."

Nick shook his head. "Yeah. Shit. When you said tie her up in the closet I imagined something less, elaborate. She's really fine with this?"

I decided not to remind him that Scyelen could transform to free herself any time she wanted. It wasn't like she'd be able to get back _into_ her bondage if she did. "Hold that thought."

I pulled the last two items out of my Pocket. One was a pair of noise-canceling headphones. The other was a VR visor with a thick sports-strap loaded up with a looped highlight reel of BDSM porn. Because even subby claustrophiles weren't immune to boredom. I plugged the headphones into the visor and leaned over Scyelen's face. Her soft, silky thighs caressed my torso and cradled my breasts.

"You've got my healing spell?" I whispered.

Scyelen nodded.

"Good girl," I murmured. "And you can cast okay with the ball-gag in?"

Scyelen nodded again. I stroked her face, and she leaned into my hand. I hit play on the visor, and fitted it and the headphones onto her head. Lastly, I clipped another clear plastic strap to the visor's strap to support her head.

Straightening up, I ran my hands over her exposed body, having no reason to resist the temptation. "She needs this," I finally said to Nick.

"If you say so," Nick replied neutrally.

I moved away from Scyelen and gave Nick a look. "She's yours until I come back for her. Fuck her as often as you feel like, the more, the better." I paused for effect. "Don't insult her, not even in the heat of the moment. Don't ask her to make any decisions for herself. Don't warn her before you do things to her."

"Uh," Nick said, giving the tied up girl in his closet a look. "Okay?"

"Take good care of her, alright?" I went over and put a hand on his chest. "Respect her like you respect your gun, or a favorite car. Treat her like a _worthwhile and worthy_ cock sleeve and cum receptacle. Because she is."

"Right," Nick said. "Have I mentioned that you're weird as hell?"

With a wry smirk, I grabbed his neck and lifted myself off the floor to meet his lips with a kiss.

* * *

 _June 8th, 2027_  
_Freedom City, Ganymede_  
_Coretown_

I emerged from the Crossroads at the pinnacle of an entire world, looking down into a chasm of city so deep I couldn't see the bottom. On eight sides, layers upon layers of interconnected venues and plazas stretched inward towards a hub of mile-wide rings encircling a gargantuan pillar of jet black metal.

The pillar stood out, featureless and smooth like a piece of liquid night slashing through the fantastical cityscape. My eyes followed it upwards, to where it pierced the arcology's icy canopy and continued into space, stark against the face of Jupiter. A kilometer above the surface, the pillar split into four horizontal branches, fraying out into perfectly symmetrical rows of feathered fins, sparkling with electric discharge.

This was The Grid. A seemingly natural formation with no natural explanation. It surrounded the entire celestial body, and at every intersection a pillar pierced down through the icy surface, all the way through the subsurface ocean, and into Ganymede's core. It fed on radiation, sustaining itself and providing vast amounts of free electricity for Ganymese infrastructure.

The Metal Mage who created it must've been either insanely powerful or insanely patient. Probably both.

I stood on a circular balcony, lined with flower boxes and dancing water features, suspended in the middle of some kind of abstract art installation that itself stood upon a larger balcony suspended off the side of a major pedestrian intersection. I was alone, but there were benches and swirls of grass across the space with a small flying drone drifting around to pick up litter.

I heard a thump behind me.

Resettling Martin's body across my shoulders, I turned around. Eelesia and Lynette stood hand in hand, raiment tassels settling around them from their flight.

Eelesia smiled at me. "We're good to go."

"Alright." I let myself relax. "How're we doing this?"

Eelesia stepped up to the edge of the balcony next to me and pointed at the mile-wide central ring with the heaviest concentration of elevators and bridges leading into it. "That's the Coretown Reventing Center. It's the base of operations and control point for all medical-grade cell printers in the arcology, and its where they bring all their terminal patients as a first resort."

"So we could walk in with Martin, but then our lack of Jovian identities would become a problem before we could get him... revented," I guessed.

"Yes," Eelesia said, pulling out her phone and showing me a picture of a handsome asiatic man. "This is Terel Adalard. He's a technical supervisor in one of the urgent care wards, and a convenient failure point in the chain of verification." She bit her lip. "One of his underlings was taking bribes to 'misplace' certain patients from the cyropreserved backlog. I gave Terel the evidence to get that underling fired. I had to break him through the Veil, but he's agreed to help us."

"That's really impressive," I opined.

"Damn straight," Lynette agreed.

"You did that in less than a week?" I asked.

Eelesia giggled. "Lyn and I together are a hilariously effective information security hazard. Most of that time, I was just getting fluent in the language." She held out her hand. "Shall we? Terel's expecting us in the next twenty minutes."

I took her hand, and my feet left the ground. Eelesia flew us across to the ring complex in an shell of violet energy, setting down off to the side of one of the quieter public entrances. Her raiment began folding into itself the instant her feet touched concrete.

As I dispelled my own raiment, I glanced around at the clothing of the people walking by in the distance. The vast majority of the fabrics were transparent like clear plastic, sometimes with tinting or colorful opaque underwear, but the fashions were clearly intended to show off bodies in the chilly local environment. It made me more than a little curious how my Style would regenerate itself for this culture.

A seamless black bra and panties formed on Lynette's body, followed by a clear jacket and a pair of clear knee-length slanted half-skirts overlapping at the junction of her thighs. Eelesia wore a pair of loose layered leggings that bent light like rippling water, and a tight purple-tinted ruffled top, with nothing opaque underneath.

My outfit came out as a pair of tiny, stringy black shorts with a wide gap right through the center to show off my vulva, under clear skintight leggings, in addition to a green-bordered transparent bikini top.

As I followed Eelesia into the building, I pulled my tablet out of my Pocket, put the brand-new earbud in my ear, and opened the translator app. Once it was running, I clipped my new carry-strap around my waist and hung my tablet off my hip.

Eelesia slapped a big obvious button on the wall screen and an automated stretcher folded out of the wall, whirring over to stop in front of us, next to the screen. With a friendly chime, an anime girl appeared on the wall screen. She was nude, but her skin was sterile white and she had a red cross emblazoned over her breasts.

The anime girl started talking, and my translation app repeated into my ear, "Welcome to the Coretown Reventing Center! If this is a medical emergency, please place the patient on the provided wheelbed and touch the urgent care call icon. Otherwise, have a seat, and a Coretown Reventing Technician will arrive to welcome you in the next twelve minutes."

I put Martin down on the stretcher, but Eelesia didn't touch the screen again. Only a few moments later, a man in a skintight opaque white bodysleeve that I recognized as Terel emerged and ushered us through a side door. The automatic stretcher moved first, and the rest of us followed it into a carpeted hallway.

"So it is true," Terel said softly, staring at Martin's grayish purple tentacle-face. "I walk beside a biological impossibility."

"The world you believed in is a stage-play," Eelesia replied, her words also rendered into English by my translator app. "A false set of possibility. A walled garden of lies built to uphold a false consensus. I wish I knew why."

"I cannot imagine any justification," Terel said, shaking his head. "I cannot."

I could. The Puuchu, Beacon, or whoever architected the Veil wanted something that didn't align with human values. The Veil was useful sometimes but I'd never imagined that it ought to be a favor to my species. It protected me, but it also protected the monsters, and it actively made baselines easier prey.

"I do not expect a justification to exist," I put in, speaking simply for the sake of my translator. "There are no satisfying reasons for unfairness."

Terel shook his head. Eelesia smiled at me and patted my shoulder. We reached a junction in the hallway, emerging into a wider corridor. Terel led us through a pair of double-doors into a dead-end full of machinery.

A series of glass tanks lined the left wall, with cables and tubes running under a grated floor. A sleek black console filled the back wall, with the remaining space occupied by a pair of large heavy machines that each cradled a clear glass tray large enough for even the tallest man or woman to lay down in. Terel went to the console, unlocked it with a palm scan and password, and brought up an interface.

"Please place the patient in the left-hand reventor," Terel said.

The stretcher whirred over and parked next to the left machine. Following it, I scooped Martin up and moved him onto the tray. The stretcher beeped and retreated, folding itself up against a bare stretch of wall.

"Alright," I said. "How long until we know if this is going to work?"

"I have no idea how this man's, condition, will interact with the procedure," Terel admitted. "Unless you wish to change your mind, all I can do is begin the process and hope. By design, a reventing cannot be manually aborted once it has begun."

"Wait, what?" Lynette blurted. _Her_ translation app failed to capture her tone, repeating her exclamation in a monotone. "Who thought that was a good idea?"

Terel merely smiled patiently. "Anyone who thought about the abuse potential of this technology for more than five minutes."

Lynette pouted at him, and opened her mouth to retort, but Eelesia put an arm around her and stopped her. I made an expectant gesture. I wanted to hear this.

"Apologies. I did not mean to sound condescending," Terel said. "The reventing procedure has been carefully designed to prevent accidental, or deliberate, creation of continuity forks. Multiple instances of the same origin."

It would have to be, wouldn't it. I knew _I'd_ make an army of myself if it were that easy. "How does it do that?"

"This explanation will not alter our intent," Eelesia broke in. "Please go ahead and begin, and explain after."

Terel closed his mouth, then said, "Very well." He turned to the console, tapped a few controls. A big flashing rectangle appeared. He tapped that, and the machine made a noise. "Reventing initiated."

Two halves of a glass canopy folded up over the tray, sealing Martin inside. A clear, viscous liquid poured into the glass pod, suspending and slowly submerging Martin's body.

I turned to Terel. "Is it able to get a scan through the horrorflesh?"

"We won't know for a while," Terel replied, gesturing at the filling pod. "This is the," untranslatable, "the so-called Safe Shutdown drug, which disables the nervous system and brings all brain activity to an end without memory loss."

"Wait, you have to kill them _before_ you scan them? Isn't that dangerous?" Lynette asked.

Terel frowned and shook his head emphatically. "It is precisely this order of operations that ensures an unbroken continuity line. In an active brain, a cognitive process might continue within its own continuity, however briefly, branching off from the line that continues within the revention."

"And that's a continuity fork?" Lynette asked. "Why are those even so bad?"

"Because a continuity fork is _irrevocable_ ," Terel said. "One person becomes two, and that cannot be undone. We're not even sure if merging two minds without deleterious effects on continuity is _theoretically_ possible. We're nowhere close to attempting it in lab. We're nowhere close to even an ethical experiment."

Eelesia and Lynette both glanced side-long at me. I decided not to speak up. Merging with my Duplicate copies was entirely seamless, but I'd never actually diverged from myself enough to know what would happen if the merger had to resolve a contradiction in my gestalt personality. After the week I spent as both a prisoner and in ignorant suspense, I _did_ feel like I was the sum of those experiences rather than the average of them, but I really didn't want to push it any further than that.

"Continuity is the important thing?" Lynette asked.

"It is the only thing," Terel said, nodding. "A self _is_ continuity. Yet there are no laws of physics nor philosophy that protect continuity, only our correct order of operations."

Eelesia nodded along. "A ripple on a pond is not made of water. Wave and medium. Light is not made of space. We are not a configuration, we are a propagation."

Terel smiled. "Yes. That is the true insight." He turned and waved towards Martin in the glass pod. "Even in world of magic, this is fundamental. The mind _state_ represented by the neural connectome is not the mind. It is the mind's medium, ever changing as the mind travels through it." He stood up, gesturing. "We manipulate the medium, but the mind is outside of time. Once, one of this man existed. Now, zero of this man exists. Soon, one of him will exist again. His continuity unbroken."

"If zero Martins exist during the cut and paste operation, there's no risk of an _extra_ Martin existing or dying anywhere in the process," I summarized, also nodding. "And if Martin is nowhere, you can put him anywhere."

At this, Terel laughed. "Not yet, I can't." He pointed at a bundle of cables connecting the two reventors. "This generation of reventor requires a hardline connection. They're waiting on whole new advances in signal authentication and cryptography before they let out the versions that connect over the internet."

"What does it need to authenticate?" Eelesia asked curiously.

"Well," Terel said. "Once the Safe Shutdown is complete, the brain is scanned, parsed, and transmitted to the destination. The destination reventor confirms pattern viability, which takes longer than the scan, mind you, then sends a signal back to the originator. Only once it receives that signal will the originator break down the original body, then send a confirmation signal to the destination. Only _then_ will the destination reventor begin printing the new body."

A message popped up on the console, shifting a different interface element into focus. Inside the glass pod, the clear gel was clouding up around Martin's monstrous head. A large ring pivoted up around the pod and locked into place. An electric hum filled the room.

"How long?" I asked.

"If there are no complications, about two hours," Terel promised.

Eelesia turned to me. "That should be long enough. Do you have your new module with you?"

I blinked. "Yeah. I bought it yesterday on my way here. Jen of Jenesis was really disappointed that I wasn't paying for the installation then and there."

Eelesia tilted her head curiously. "Oh right. Her. Okay. All we need is a space big enough to lay down in where we won't be interrupted."

* * *

"What would happen if you put a magical girl in one of those things?" I wondered idly, sitting cross-legged on the floor of a supply closet down the hall from Terel.

Eelesia moved around me, drawing a sorcery array with a purple marker. "Probably nothing. I doubt the Safe Shutdown drug would work on a magical girl." She put a tet down and moved to draw another section. "If it somehow did, I have no idea what would happen, but a likely possibility is that the revention would come out braindead. Or it could be a perfectly healthy nonmagical copy that wakes up but immediately dies of a seizure at the hands of the Veil. Who knows."

I snorted. That was a grim mental image. I peered at Eelesia's scribblings. I recognized some of the basic parts of the diagram, but I didn't know enough sorcery to have any idea what it was supposed to do.

Eelesia glanced up. "I'm adding an isolation field around the five dimensional interface. This is going to be literal open-soul surgery, so I want to be very sure nothing distracts me."

"Just how badly could you cripple me if you were trying?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing I'm doing could affect your spells or your transformation," Eelesia said. "But if I were _trying_ , I could probably break all of your other mods except the basic three and steal the contents of your Pocket."

"Good to know, that," I opined.

Eeleisa finished the last circle, set down another tet, and spoke. "Hoe." The runes around one tet lit up, auroric light blazing out of the marker lines. "Oum. Oum. Lyv." Light raced along the drawn lines, drawn to each rune as she spoke it, splitting into multiple paths where she'd drawn the same runes in more than one place. "Hoe. Lyv." The circuit closed, the tet evaporated in a burst of prismatic color, and everything outside the larger boundary circle melted into whitenoise.

"Alright," I said. "Do I need to do anything?"

Eelesia shook her head. "I actually lied."

I stopped and blinked at her.

Eelesia took a deep breath. "This was the best excuse to put up an isolation barrier I was going to get. I needed to be sure nothing could possibly hear us talking about this."

"Talking about what?" I asked.

"The implications of you being your own patron," Eelesia said. "That you, a magical girl, are holding the other end of a patron bond. I did some digging, and there was _nothing_. Not even rumors. But you're proof it's possible." She looked at me, cautious. "Do you see the implication?"

"You said my soul was... eating itself," I reviewed. "That being my own patron was destructive." But, "if magical girls can be patrons for each other without that drawback..."

"I believe magical girls can be patrons for each other, without that drawback," Eelesia confirmed. She winced. "And I was wrong about the timeframe. The damage has progressed a lot faster than I thought it would. We need to unplug your patron bond in the next few months."

I jolted up. "Months?" Of course. Down in the lair I'd strained my soul past my limits, defending myself. I was still getting phantom pains. "Shit."

"I had the idea that if you became my patron, you'd be able to feel your own bond well enough to release it," Eelesia said, giving me a sheepish, hopeful look.

That, was not a bad idea in theory, but then I would _be Eelesia's patron_. She wanted _me_ to be her patron? That was kind of a heavy prospect. And I'd be patronless, unless... wait.

"Eelesia," I said slowly. "What would happen if I became your patron, and then you became my patron?"

"I _don't know_ ," Eelesia said, her voice wavering. She worried her lip. "At a first pass, it looks like the words 'mutual' and 'patron' don't appear next to each other _anywhere_ on the internet. I got spooked and stopped looking as soon as I noticed, but I don't think this is just a matter of no one having tried. I think the idea has been _suppressed_."

I felt the back of my neck prickle. "Alright. That is spooky."

Eelesia took a deep breath. "I'm going to do more research. I'll be as careful as I can. But if it can be done, are you willing?"

"I'm not unwilling," I hedged. "It's kind of a big deal, though."

"I trust you," Eelesia offered.

I smiled. "You cheat."

Eelesia giggled. "Not as much as you'd think."

"I like you," I told her. "It's not like there's anyone else I'd want to be mutual patrons with, but..." I trailed off.

Eelesia cocked her head to one side and studied me. "Is it just because we haven't had sex?"

It was, I realized. Eelesia was my first friend. She'd been there at the beginning, and she'd accepted me just as I'd accepted her. We'd each had our own concerns, but we were natural allies. Falling in to fight back to back, so to speak, was as easy as breathing. But a mutual patron bond was more of a, front to front, relationship. I _wasn't_ comfortable with that unless it was sexual.

Eelesia knelt in front of me, her body on display through her transparent clothing, as I sat in front of her, effectively nude, and nodded. "Is there a reason we haven't?" I asked.

"No," Eelesia said, "but we've both had lovers who wanted or needed us more, who took precedence, and we have not had all that much objective time to find opportunities." She put her hand on my knee. "I'd like to have sex with you, Cameron. If only because of what sexuality means to you."

I smiled at her, because even though she didn't relate to sexuality in the same way I did, she understood. I caught her hand and kissed her fingers. She smiled at me.

"Okay! Let's hurry up and get your module installed," Eelesia said. "Lay down. Style off."

I let my ultra-revealing outfit dissolve and stretched out on my back, hands at my sides. "Feel free to let your hands wander while you work on me."

Eelesia giggled again. "Shush. I need to focus. And try not to move too much unless you want my severed hands floating around in your soul while you heal me. The deployment array is in your Pocket?"

"Alright. And yes."

Eelesia began incanting runes, using her sorcery array to build a machine out of pure mana. The air over my body splintered, shearing like the shards of a mirror. Hard lines of aurora folded up out of the array at her beckoning, feeding into and interlocking with the mirror shards. She took a moment to brace herself, and plunged her hands into the broken space.

"Oh fuck that is weird," I breathed. It was like I could feel a physical touch on my thoughts, a contradiction of physicality and abstraction weirder than any synesthesia.

I tried to relax and let Eelesia work. She moved through my soul with a deft touch, gently easing layers apart to configure connections for my Masculinity. I felt her touch Duplicate and made an inquisitive noise.

"Can I?" Eelesia murmured. "Yes, I see how it would fit... I think I can link Masculinity with Duplicate as well. You'll be able to choose the sex of your duplicates on creation, the same way you can make nude duplicates even with your raiment active."

Oh. Neat. Eelesia's touch moved elsewhere, through my thoughts to emerge in an actual physical space I could feel. My Pocket.

"There's a buttplug in here," Eelesia noted absently. She froze, eyes widening. "There is a _cursed_ buttplug in here!"

I'd honestly forgotten about that thing. "I took it off Olandra before I killed her. Can you tell what it does?"

"I will find out later," Eelesia said. She extracted her hand, dragging the physical shape of a buttplug through my abstract thoughts before coming out with the silvery object in her hand. She set it down off to the side and plunged back into my soul.

* * *

The last of the shattered space melted back into smoothness, and the prismatic glow died out. The isolation barrier faded, leaving us on the floor of the supply closet. Eelesia rose to her feet and offered me a hand.

Standing, I ran my hands over the girlish curves of my nude body to center myself. Eelesia watched me, waiting. I reached for my new module, letting out a sharp breath as it consumed fully half of my mana capacity.

It didn't feel like anything. One moment, I had big breasts, flaring hips, and a warm receptive void between my legs. The next, my chest was flat muscle, my hips were square, and I had a dick.

"Do you have a mirror?" I asked, touching my throat. My voice wasn't deep, but it was richly masculine.

Eelesia pulled a hand mirror out of her Pocket and held it up.

The boy in the mirror was undeniably hot. As sleekly handsome as my real body was lushly sexy, with perfect skin, tousled hair, and a big gorgeous cock slowly swelling to hardness. That was a nostalgic sensation. The face was almost mine, so similar to my normal face while being undeniably male. I was still the same height, with the same fit, sturdy build. This... this was okay.

"I didn't look or sound anything like this," I said, "before I was a magical girl."

"That body is a projection extrapolated from your current female body," Eelesia explained, squinting at me. "Your real body is still there, just displaced with all of your nerve inputs overridden. The module isn't getting information from your past."

I tore my eyes away from the mirror, shaking my head. "You'd think this would be less weird for me because I was born a boy, but I think it's actually weirder."

With an affectionate hum, Eelesia moved in to stroke my chest with her hand. It felt good but also weird, like my breasts were still there, just stretched flat over something hard. Her simulated clothing misted away to nothing as she reached out to pull me into a hug. I sucked in a breath as her soft skin and warm body melded against my hard flat chest.

I felt my protruding erection touch bare flesh. The sensation was familiar in content but novel in context simultaneously, and in an instant I was painfully aware that this swollen phallus attached to my groin _belonged_ in a tight sheath of warm wet flesh and it had never even been near one until now. My first instinct was to deactivate Masculinity so I could provide that wet fleshy sheath myself, but.

"Eelesia," I said with forced evenness, sliding my hands down her back to grip her bare butt. "Unless you want to have sex with me _right now_ , I'm going to make a duplicate and fuck myself until Lyn comes to get us."

In response, Eelesia kissed me.

Her lips were soft and her tongue eager, slicking my lips as she drew my tongue into a twining embrace. My cock throbbed, jabbing between her thighs, and she bent her legs, making room for it to slap up against the slippery softness of her vulva.

I needed to be inside her.

Turning us, I pushed Eelesia's back up against the doors and reached down to hook my arms under her knees. Lifting her was effortless. I still had the same strength, and in Ganymede's gravity she only weighed about sixteen pounds. My cock was straight and thick, easy to aim with just my hips. Our kiss broke, my lips dragged down to her neck as I pushed up on her ass, seating my tip in her hot cleft.

Eelesia curled forward in my hands, swallowing my glans with her pussy. With a helpless moan, I rocked into her, rising onto my toes to bury my length inside her tight molten embrace even as I lowered her onto me. It felt so much like the empty ache of needing to be stuffed full, and the liquid grip of Eelesia's walls around my shaft met that need in almost the same way, but the arrangement of those sensations turned it into something else entirely.

I let out a long, slow breath as my heels dropped back to the floor.

Eelesia was smiling at me, arms around my neck as she rested against the closed door with my cock hilted inside her, our mounds rubbing slickly together as we breathed. My instincts were silent. She didn't need anything from this, or from me. She was doing for me what I wanted to do for everyone, because that's who I was.

My hips moved, my cock throbbed, and I mashed my lips against hers as I bucked into her, cumming. Pulsing waves of pleasure burst free as my dick pumped a few dribbles of my own pussy juice into Eelesia's depths. I kept thrusting, harder, faster, as I regained control over my muscles, because I didn't need to slow down, I didn't need to wait, to recover.

Orgasms felt the same. I was still the same girl underneath the boy-shaped interface with reality, with the same nerves, same hormones, same responses. I stayed aroused. I had no refractory period or any of the dull oversensitivity I remembered from having a real penis. I kept the sexual stamina of a nigh-multiorgasmic girl in my new male form.

Eelesia and I moaned into each other's mouths as I pressed her harder against the closed door and thrust into her, driving my cock deep as our bodies clapped together, echoing wetly in the small room. She came. I came again. She came again. We both came together.

We wound up on the floor, my legs folding and the impact barely felt in such low gravity. Eelesia rode me, undulating on top of me to milk another orgasm out of my dick while she used her whole body to rub her breasts against my chest. I could read her physiology. She could feel what I felt. We both had physical grace and coordination far beyond human.

We didn't stop until Lynette showed up and stopped us.

* * *

"At least you were on top and I didn't get an eyefull of boy-butt," Lynette snarked at Eelesia as we headed back to Terel in the reventing room.

"I'll be sure to warn you next time," I said wryly, in my usual womanly voice. I walked along in their wake, feeling the sway of my breasts and the swing of my hips anew and savoring both even as my pussy ached for something to fuck it. "You don't have to worry, though. I'll probably save my male form for partners who actively prefer it."

"I might prefer it on occasion," Eelesia mused lightly.

Lynette rolled her eyes. I giggled.

We returned to Terel to find a large rendered image of Martin's nude body above the console's interface, surrounded by a collage of images, many of which I recognized. "Are those _Lewd &Clued_ shoots?"

"Yeah, I converted a bunch of Martin's porn," Eelesia explained. "They needed images of him to generate a morphology profile."

"Pornographic video is good!" Terel pronounced. "Lots of contortions, many angles, nothing hidden. Only direct imaging is better, and that was not an option in this case."

The tray where I'd left Martin's infected body was empty except for a grayish purple blob with tentacles, and the clear gel was tinged with swirls of cloudy pink and green. The tray in the other reventor was closed and filled with a cloudy gel, within which I could see the shape of a skeleton, its bare skull housing a complete and intact brain. Points of light covered the interior of the glass in a tight grid, all focused inward at the slowly enfleshing bones.

"You can't use his genetics to determine the output?" I asked.

Terel shook his head. "Would require molecular simulation. Very slow. Would take years. And it would not actually help! We are printing body, not growing it."

"That's probably a good thing," I reasoned. "I wouldn't want to trust what was left of his DNA anyway."

"Indeed," Terel agreed. "In truth, genetics play no role. Feedstock for reventor is a cryostable solution of HUBS," he paused, "that is, Human Universal Baseline Stem-cells. Which possess all and only DNA shared by all humans. During print, system performs reverse look-up to database for variable genes, and modifies HUBS _in situ_. Is usually accurate enough to make close genetic relative, if not match."

I frowned and glanced down at my tablet. The translation of his words was acquiring a thicker accent, in phraseology if not pronunciation. I closed and restarted the app, just in time to hear the last half of Eelesia's next question.

"...be worried about the remains in the first reventor?"

Terel shot the tentacle blob a worried look. "I honestly don't know. It shouldn't be possible for anything to remain. The system confirmed the dissolution of the original body." He paused. "So, perhaps we _should_ be worried, but you would know better than I."

I focused on the blob, but I didn't sense anything new. I turned to the other reventor, sensing the organs and tissues within solidify into existence. The streams of stem cells were too small and too fast to sense as more than a blur before the printing process itself warmed them to body temperature and they began to specialize, linking up with their neighbors and responding to chemical markers in the gel.

"Will Martin need anything special to stay healthy, after this is done?" I asked.

"Nothing special at all," Terel said. "What's more, his cells are newborn. Though his form will be that of an adult, he will have cells lacking over two decades of accumulated damage. It will be at least three decades, and as much as five, before he will begin to suffer the first signs of aging. By then, perhaps Earth will have imported the technology."

"One can only hope," Eelesia opined innocently, for some reason _not_ reminding him that Earth now had gene-mods that could all but halt the aging process.

Terel nodded. After a few more minutes, the grid of lights inside the glass pod winked out. Terel turned to the console, ignoring us as he checked through dozens of inscrutable readings. "That's strange."

I glanced at Martin's new body. "What is?"

"Cell-bonding is accelerated by order of magnitude," Terel said, eyes fixed on the displays. "Usually takes many times longer to achieve organ integrity necessary to being revival process."

I traded a wary glance with Eelesia, my transformation aria on the tip of my tongue. Inside the reventor, the gel liquefied and drained away, leaving Martin intact on the tray. The lid slid open, and an armature rotated up, placing a mask over Martin's face. It used a small tube to force air into him, inflating his lungs. His chest rose, and his whole body twitched as the reventor started his heart with an energy pulse focused on his hindbrain.

Martin's brain flared to life all at once.

"What?!" Terel exclaimed in alarm, twisting around to look at the reventor. "He cannot awaken so quickly!"

Martin's eyes snapped open and he lurched up with a gasp, getting caught in the mask for a moment before shoving himself out from under it. He flailed his way off the tray and staggered once he was upright, looking around wildly.

I rushed forward and grabbed his shoulders. "Martin! Martin, it's me. It's okay. You're okay."

"No, he's not," Eelesia said, a fringe of fear in her tone. "Cameron! He's not—"

Martin's wild gaze locked onto my face. His expression didn't shift in the slightest, but his body went rigid. Then his eyeballs exploded.

I flinched as blood and eye bits sprayed my face, and from the depths of the ruined craters in his face came an eerie green radiance that lanced out in twin beams of horrific agony. The blast caught me straight in the chest.

Pain.

Nothing but pain.

An empty universe of screaming agony.

When I remembered who I was, it was over. Terel huddled behind the first reventor. Eelesia knelt over me, in her raiment, hand glowing blue, and the pain retreated enough for me to think. Martin's body was face down, headless, with an entirely nude Lynette's fist buried in the crushed remains of his skull. Streaks of green, like glowing paint, decorated the walls and equipment.

No, not Martin. _We didn't get Martin. We got the unborn horrorspawn._

Lynette stood up, her local Style condensing onto her body. I pushed myself up. I was also nude, simulated clothing obliterated by the green radiance. I didn't bother to reactivate my Style.

"So that's it," I said tonelessly. "Martin's gon—" I cut myself off, eyes locking on the first reventor. One of the green streaks passed straight over the tray with the tentacle blob. The tentacle blob which was now _glowing_.

Eelesia and Lynette whirled around. Lynette started to lunge forward. With a sound like a thunderclap, the glass tray slammed open with the the force of a small bomb, spraying gel across the room. Lynette hit the far wall. Eelesia ducked, bracing herself. I slammed back against the second reventor.

Laying in the tray, there was a purplish gray figure. Sleek, defined muscles. Two powerful legs with clawed feet. Four strong arms. Two meaty penises. A head with five tentacles instead of a face. Eyes. Actual eyes, not just glowing pits. Green on green on green, but _human_.

And a voice, breathing a question. "Where am I?"

Lynette launched from the wall, flying fist-first towards—fuck! that was Martin! I snapped my hand out and caught Lynette's ankle, jolting against my handhold as I hauled her to a stop in midair. She didn't fall. In Ganymede's gravity, I was strong enough to hold her out in front of me like a sword, and she was strong enough to hold herself up horizontally by one leg without effort.

"What? What gives?" Lynette demanded.

"Lyn," Eelesia said softly. "Look."

The gorgeous tentacle-faced four-armed two-dicked body turned towards us, blinking his eyes. "Cameron?"

"Martin? Is that you?" I asked, tossing Lynette over my shoulder and going to help him sit up.

"Yeah?" he replied. "What's wrong with my voice?"

His two right hands both lifted towards his neck, but bumped into each other and met only his face tentacles. He froze, eyes going wide as he stared at his two right hands. "Aaah!" He looked down at himself. "Aaaaah!" His face tentacles flared up into his field of vision. "Aaaauugh!"

I caught him between his upper and lower arms as he recoiled and almost fell off the tray. "Martin!"

"What the fuck?!" Martin screeched in his new sibilant voice. "What... what happened to me?"

"We're on Ganymede," I began. I continued, explaining everything that had happened since I'd pulled him out of the Elder Brain's lake in broad strokes. "But the revention wasn't you, so," I pointed.

Martin turned his grayish purple head and stared at the body on the floor. "Oh fuck."

"Yeah," I said. "It... technically worked, but..."

Martin looked up at Terel, who had been watching in horrified fascination. He flinched back a step as Martin stared at him. "You can put me through again, right?"

"I..." Terel steadied himself. "The system does not recognize your physiology. Reventor may be damaged, but biochemical telemetry is working. I am sorry, but, whatever has happened, you are no longer human enough for the system to revent you."

"But I can't be _stuck_ like this!" Martin exclaimed desperately, staring down at himself.

"Cameron?" Eelesia spoke up. "I'm going to talk to Terel about fixing the damage and making sure he doesn't get in trouble for this. You can leave that to me. Take care of Martin."

I nodded, tugging Martin to his broad clawed feet. "She's right. Come on. Let's get you home."

"Home?" Martin breathed. "I can't go home like this."

"Darrek knows what we were doing," I said, slinging an upper arm over my shoulder and a lower arm around my waist. "He'll be fine with you. And the Veil will cover us if anyone on the street sees you."

"I look like a monster," Martin hissed as I walked him out of the room. "If I'm really stuck like this, I'm going to lose everything..."

I stopped and turned to face him. I was still nude, and one bare breast squished softly against his distractingly sexy chest. "I won't let that happen. We'll figure this out. Even if you are stuck this way, we can make that work."

"I know what they did to you," Martin sighed. "How can you even stand to touch me?"

I blinked as an incredulous laugh bubbled out of my throat. "Martin, you may look like a monster, but the monster you look like happens to be just _absurdly hot_. Your new body pushes buttons I didn't even know I had. Believe me. Even if everyone else recoils in horror, the only way you're getting rid of me is with the jaws of life."

"That's..." He sighed again. "Thanks, Cameron."

I got us moving again. "It's just the truth. You are _unspeakably_ sexy like this, and unlike every other being with a body like that, I actually like you."

Both of Martin's cocks twitched. I shivered and tried not to think about it, because if I did I'd be dripping down my thighs before we even made it into the Crossroads. And Martin probably needed time.

"Y'know," I mused. "With the right lighting and framing, we could probably pass you off as a special effect. Your career isn't over either."

Martin chuckled despite himself.

* * *

 _June 10th, 2027_  
_Daly City, California_  
_Farnel Residence_

Bree's mother was suspicious, nosy, and arrogant to an unpleasant degree, but after several minutes of politely explaining that I was Bree's friend Cameron, she finally agreed to go _ask_ Bree if she wanted to see me.

After several minutes, I peered in through the window and saw Bree's mother sitting down watching a show. I made a face. Hopping the fence, I circled around and found Bree's room directly. I knocked on the glass.

A few moments later, Bree let me in through the back door. "Sorry about that. I've got veil-bait up on the door to my room, so every time Mom tries to come in, she can't find the doorknob."

Indeed, a wavering hologram depicting a coy emoji hovered an inch away from the wood as she led me into her room. It was a cozy room, with white shelves full of manga and books, a game console, and a fluffy bed covered with... were those _plushy lightbulbs_? Cute.

"Nice room," I told her.

Bree grinned and shrugged. "Thanks. So uh, what's up?"

I focused on Style. I had to specify each article of clothing manually for a male body, but when I activated Masculinity, my clothing shifted along with me, leaving me in a tight black long-sleeved mesh shirt, and black jeans. Bree's eyes went wide.

"That depends on what you feel like you need, tonight," I explained, in my deeper masculine voice. "We can get naked right now and cuddle until you feel like fucking. Or we can go out, act like we're on a date, and end up making out on a rooftop somewhere. Or anything in between."

"Uh, wow," Bree said, sounding a little faint. "Did you plan... date?"

"Not really, no," I admitted cheerfully. "Just tell me what you need right now, that's all."

Bree looked at me and blushed. "I don't think I could take a date seriously, knowing it's you. But, that's okay. I... sex. Sex is the thing that... I don't need to go on a date." She glanced aside. "I do kinda, just want it to be normal? Like I kinda want you to do me like a normal boyfriend does his normal girlfriend, when nobody's trying to impress anybody?"

I smiled gently. "That's fine. Come here."

With a gulp, Bree stood up and her clothing dissolved away. I let my own Style lapse, and took her into my arms, holding her skin to skin. She hesitated for a moment, then looped her arms around my neck. I pulled on her hips, pressing her lightly against my rising cock as I leaned down and kissed her.

Bree sighed and melted into me. Slowly, we shuffled over to the bed. When we got there, Bree broke off to pull the covers down. We fell into bed together, kissing and touching until Bree's moans turned needy and urgent. I rolled on top of her, spreading her thighs as I lined myself up. With another kiss, my cock split her folds and sank into her tight channel of slippery heat, and we moved together, coaxing pleasure from our joined flesh until we were spent.


	15. CAMERON

_June 11th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Studio_

I sat on the bare mattress of one of the unmade prop beds, watching Martin pace. The morning sunlight diffused through the curtains covering the studio's windows, bathing Martin's lithe alien form in a soft luminescence as his straining boxers struggled to contain his two-cock bulge and outlined his tail on its way out the back of one leg hole.

"I don't know what to do, Cameron," Martin said in his low sibilant voice. "Can I really have a life like this? I'm..." He stopped. "I mean look at me."

I did. Deep green eyes, with a large tentacle in front like a tapered trunk, two more beside it to give the impression of strong cheekbones, and another two behind to fill in the lines. A beautifully defined masculine torso, fit and lean and sleek, with four strong arms. A pair of gorgeous cocks, poorly hidden under straining cotton.

"I am," I said, sultry. "You are so incredibly hot. I can't even look at you without getting wet."

Martin stared at me, so I leaned back on my elbows and dispelled my simulated outfit. I spread my legs, showing off the flushed and glistening lips of my vulva. His bulge twitched.

Martin turned away from me and hung his head. "What if you're the only one? What if it doesn't matter? I don't even understand my body anymore. What if I _hurt_ someone?"

I stood up and put my arms around his waist, pressing my bare breasts against the warm purple-gray skin of his back. "Mistakes happen. Maybe you'll make mistakes. But if you make them with me, I promise I can take it. I do know exactly what I'm getting into."

Martin twisted around in my arms to face me. He was taller than he'd been as a human, and I had to look up past his tentacles to meet his eyes. The tips of two of those tentacles caressed my face, grazing up the sides of my jaw until they reached my temples. Martin froze.

"I can taste you," he breathed softly, eyes widening. "I can taste your mind. It... what happened really _doesn't_ bother you. And you really are... lusting after me, right now."

"Did you think I was putting on a brave face?" I asked, smiling as I nuzzled his tentacles. "I'm not that brave, Martin."

"Maybe," Martin admitted sheepishly. With a sudden start, he reared back and yanked his tentacles away from my face. "I can _taste_ you. Cameron, what happens when I get hungry?"

My core clenched at the thought, and I caught the waistband of Martin's boxers to stop him from pulling away. "We'll figure it out, but in the worst case you can just feed on me the same way they did. We already know that works and won't do me any harm."

Martin put his head in his upper hands and sighed while his lower hands glided up my arms to rest on my shoulders. His bulge grew, revealing two distinct peaks in the straining cotton. I wormed my fingers under the elastic and tugged his boxers off his hips, dropping to my knees as I slid them down his legs. His cocks sprung free, clapping against each other with a meaty smack.

"Cameron, what are you doing?" Martin asked. His tail got stuck for a moment before it wiggled free, but he didn't lift his feet when I got to his ankles. "Darrek will be back with Vanessa and Cece soon."

"So?" I asked, nuzzling the sides of Martin's glorious twin erections.

Martin shivered and put a hand on my head to hold me still. "I'd rather... ease them into this..."

I wrapped my hand around his lower penis, feeling his hot spongy girth fill my grip. "I swear this is the most beautiful dick I've ever seen, and you've got two of them." I tilted my head back and sucked the tip of his lower cock into my mouth, closing my lips on the ridge of his glans as his upper cock rubbed over my face.

With a low hiss, Martin dropped to his knees in front of me, yanking his cock out of my mouth. He met my eyes and grabbed my hips with his lower arms while his upper arms went under my arms. He lifted me, and I moved with him, wrapping my legs around his waist as he placed my crotch at the tip of his lower erection.

I sank down, my pussy splitting open and filling up with his thick girth while his upper penis dragged up over my clit. I moaned, wanton, and wrapped my hands around his upper dick, stroking it while I fucked his lower dick. His hands roamed, the upper set migrating to my breasts while the lower set seized my ass to help move me on him.

"Uhhh!" I moaned, letting my head fall back in pleasure. "I love that you can touch me... with twice as many hands. It feels so good, you groping my ass and my tits at the same time."

"I like that too," Martin admitted, squeezing and kneading my flesh with all four hands. "You feel good."

I leaned in, my forehead bumping into the base of his trunk tentacle as my hips swiveled and rocked. "What else? Do you like?"

"I like having abs," Martin offered. "I've always wanted abs."

I giggled. "Good."

Martin's tentacle curled up along my jaw, the base of it pressing into my lips. His movements slowed. "But I can't kiss you. At all. I don't have lips."

"Are your tentacles sensitive?" I asked, taking one hand off his upper cock to guide the tip of his trunk tentacle into my mouth. I stroked my tongue along the soft groove in the tentacle's underside.

Martin gasped. "Yeah... it kind of feels like if you're making out with my upper lip? Only not..."

I let go of his largest tentacle and used both hands to gather up all five tentacles, bringing the tips together and stuffing the whole mass into my mouth. I wiggled my tongue into the mass, moving my lips around it in a kissing sort of way.

"Ohh, that's... nice," Martin sighed. "It doesn't feel like kissing, but I don't have words for what it does feel like."

I made an approving noise and went back to stroking his upper cock with my hands while I rode his lower cock, but after a few moments I stopped, shivering as I had a small, weak orgasm. "Mmm. Lay back. I want both of your cocks in me."

"Okay." Martin let go of my breasts and lowered himself until he was laying flat with me astride him. "Maybe there're also advantages to having two dicks."

Smiling at him, I rose up. His lower cock slurped out of my pussy, wet and glistening with my juices. I shuffled forward a few inches and nestled his upper cock in my lubricious cleft, leaving his lower cock to prod my anus. I sank down with a shuddering moan. One slippery cock invaded my ass, intruding into my guts, while the other quenched the hot ache of emptiness in my pussy, the two moving in tandem to stuff me full.

Martin's eyes bulged. "Oh gods. Oh _gods_. Both at once is. So much. Ohhhh. Oh! Cumming!"

I shuddered in pleasure, bouncing my hips and moaning as his fingers dug into my thighs and his cocks spasmed, pumping both of my holes full of his cum. As his cocks began to soften, Martin's eyes focused on me, and I felt both shafts stop shrinking and swell back to hardness.

Savoring every twinge of fullness and pleasure, I moved my hips in a slow swivel and mauled my own breasts. Martin caressed my hips, and I added more and more of a bounce to each stroke, winding up a hot need tighter and tighter until I slammed down on him with a gasping cry and came, trembling as burning waves of bliss saturated my flesh.

As my spasms subsided, I felt Martin's cocks throb inside me. He tightened his grip on my hips and bucked up into me, setting off a new cascade of feverish pleasure. Without my magical senses, I wasn't sure if he was about to cum or not, and I didn't get a chance to find out.

A door clanked open, and Darrek's voice called, "Yo! The gals are here. Where'd you put the magic card things?"

Martin froze, his eyes pleading.

"Relax. It'll be fine." I caught my breath and reluctantly stood up, biting off a whine as his cocks left my body. I gathered myself and smirked. "Being naked and hard can only help. Just wait there."

With a noise that was probably supposed to be a whimper, Martin sat up and folded his legs. I went around into the hallway, not bothering to cover myself, and saw Darrek holding the door for Vanessa and Cecelia. I pulled two of Eelesia's sorcery boards out of my Pocket.

"Hi, Cameron," Cecelia chirped. "Did we interrupt a shoot?"

I shook my head. "No, we just wanted a change of scenery."

Vanessa looked me over, intent with concern, before she swept me into a relieved hug. "That was a hell of a scare you gave us. I'm glad you're both okay, and now that we're here I believe you promised to explain what the fuck?"

I gave Vanessa a squeeze and giggled. "Yes."

"So, what _is_ this thing that's so important we can't see Martin first?" Cecelia asked.

I pulled out of the hug and handed each of them one of the boards. "Read this, out loud."

Cecelia's eyebrows climbed. "Xio oul xio? Whanmeep!" The tet dissolved and the runes lit up. She flinched like someone had set off a firecracker behind her ear, then stared at the hovering point of light, slackjawed.

"Cece? What's wrong?" Vanessa asked.

"Read yours," Cecelia gasped. "Right now."

"Hm? Mine also says xio oul xio glaaah!" Another spent tet. Another point of light. Vanessa dropped the board and put a hand to her head. "What was that?"

"Fucking magic!" Cecelia exclaimed with an emphatic arm wave.

"Magic?" Vanessa repeated, sounding dizzy.

I took a deep breath, and explained the basic nature of the Veil. "And something happened to Martin that the Veil wouldn't even let you think about. He's fine, but he looks very different now."

"Different how?" Cecelia asked cautiously.

"You really have to see it yourself," Darrek interjected. "But don't freak out. He's being all sensitive about it."

"Of course not," Vanessa said. Her gazed dipped between my legs, to the glistening trails of fluid on my thighs that glowed faintly green, and she blinked. "Wait. Is that from Martin? Is he here?"

With a wordless wave, I led the way back into the studio. Martin's tentacled face snapped up as the girls followed me in and saw him. He froze like a deer in the headlights, but I ambled over and tugged on him until he stood up in all his inhumanly sexy glory.

"Well," Vanessa said. "This is new."

"H-hi, Vanessa. Hi, Cece," Martin hissed awkwardly. "Um."

"Holy shitballs," Cecelia whispered. She spun to face me. "What _exactly_ did you rescue him from?"

"Well..." I began as she returned to staring at Martin. "That's kind of complicated."

Vanessa only snorted, a soft sound of incredulous acceptance, and stepped up to Martin with a smile. "Long time no see, Martin. Did you do something with your hair?"

Martin let out a startled breathy laugh. "Um. _Something_ sure did. So. I... look like this now." He paused. "Cameron likes it."

Vanessa giggled and pulled him into a tight hug, resting her head on his chest and pressing her belly into his wet, semi-erect cocks without hesitation. "I'm glad you're back. I'm glad you're okay."

Martin wrapped all four arms around her and sighed. "Thanks, Vanessa."

"Ooh, double the hug," Vanessa commented with a giggle. "That's nice."

"And he was worried you won't wanna fuck him anymore," Darrek added helpfully.

Vanessa pulled back to get a better look at Martin. Her eyes traveled slowly down his body and back up to his tentacled face. "I guess I can see why. But nope! I'm still totally down to hop on this dick. Or this dick. Both dicks? Both dicks. I'm gonna need lube."

I giggled at Martin. "Didn't I tell you?" I gave Cecelia a raised eyebrow. "What about you?"

Cecelia looked at me like I was an idiot. "Duh! This is the coolest thing!" She grabbed my arm. "How much do you already know? Is he a supernatural species like a vampire or is this like a mutant thing? Why does his cum glow? Do his cocks ejaculate together or are they independent?" She spun around. "Martin! You have to let me experiment on you!"

"Um," Martin replied, wide-eyed as he held Vanessa like he was trying to hide behind her.

"They can be _sexy_ experiments," Cecelia clarified with a huff. "Please? You can even record everything and put out a implausibly realistic sci-fi shoot or something. If that works. Does that work?" she asked me.

"The Veil usually takes the path of least resistance," I explained. "Anything supernatural in video is glossed as special effects, if that's at all plausible. If the viewer is _expecting_ good special effects you can probably get away with just about anything. I'd be more worried about another magical girl seeing it and jumping to conclusions."

"You did not say anything about magical girls!" Cecelia froze, slowly turning to stare at me. "Cameron. Do you have. A transformation sequence. And a ridiculous outfit."

"Yes."

"Tell. Me. Everything."

* * *

 _June 12th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Coastlands Sigma Nexus_

I snapped back into myself as my duplicate dispelled.

"One favor owed buys you three months of enforcement," the gorgon in an Ebon Mint trenchcoat informed me, "but we only collect if your claim is contested during that time. Sound fair?"

"Potentially," I said neutrally, eyeing the pair of large snakes draped over the possessed woman's shoulders like a pair of scarfs. They watched me, while the woman herself wore a blindfold. "Three months, no favors owed, but I provide my service to you and yours at no charge."

"That isn't worth much to my cell," she replied. "I don't employ any magical girls."

"Don't be obtuse," I said, rolling my eyes. "I'm offering you healing in full generality, while on the premises in question. I'm also willing to offer sexual favors."

The gorgon's snakes eyed my raiment. "I'm sure you are," she sneered. "You're not my type. And the last thing I need is for any of my men to start thinking with their dicks." Her snakes settled down. " _One_ month, for your promise of healing, and you make house calls at my discretion."

"Your men are _less_ likely to think with their dicks if they know where to find a safe hole to stick 'em in," I countered. "One month, but _you_ come to _me_ , in the Intersect only, and you throw in a digitally backed identity."

The gorgon raised one eyebrow behind her blindfold and one of her snakes cocked its head. "All of that, and you don't complain if I use said identity to find you in a medical emergency."

"Agreed," I agreed, agreeing agreeably.

We shook hands, and I handed over the fake ID I'd picked up back at the start of all this.

"I'll need photos of you, and of this partner you mentioned," the gorgon said. "Your month begins as soon as I distribute them to my agents. Should I expect you to come back with this partner?"

I shook my head. "Actually, he should be here presently."

Right on cue, Owen walked around the corner, glancing over his shoulder at where I'd left him to rejoin my real self after leading him here. He spotted me and brightened, hurrying to catch up.

With a sharp double-take, Owen got his first look at me in my raiment. He tripped and fell flat on his face. I winced inwardly and went to help him up.

Grabbing my arm, Owen lurched up to his feet and dusted himself off with overly casual movements. "Hi. Yes. I'm here. Hello. Yes."

I giggled under my breath and gave him a brief heal. "Smile for the camera, Owen."

"Huh?"

The gorgon from the Ebon Mint held up her phone and snapped a few pictures. "Good. We'll be seeing you, Rousing Salve."

"Thank you for your time," I said, turning Owen around and leading him back out towards the busy plaza ahead.

I glanced back and saw that he wasn't following. He stood still, staring at my bare butt with more than a little alarm on his face. As I turned, his eyes roved over my bare mound and climbed to my exposed breasts, before snapping up to my face with a hard blush.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He turned away, putting his hand up between his eyes and me. "I didn't mean to look I didn't, I, but you're wearing that, what if someone sees you?"

Resisting the urge to facepalm, I went and tugged his hand away from his face. "People see me like this all the time. It's fine."

"But you might as well be naked!" Owen exclaimed.

"Really? I never noticed," I deadpanned. "Seriously. You can look at me. This is my raiment. This is me as a magical girl. I'm proud to be seen like this."

Owen let his eyes dip to my breasts before he fixed his gaze on my face. "R-right. Okay. I guess if you're used to it. It's not your fault your magic did it this way?" He nodded to himself. "So it would be wrong to judge you for it."

I sighed inwardly. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

 _June 13th, 2027_  
_The Crossroads_  
_Coastlands Sigma Intersect_

A pair of magical girls in elaborate raiments stalked into our new market booth. The one in the lead moved like an angry tidal wave. Rippling banners of oceanic blue cloth wafted in her wake, seeded with dark opals like the shadows of something unknowable lurking beneath clear waters. Skimming through the air to catch up with miss angry ocean, the other magical girl just looked anxious, trailing sandy brown hair in a shimmery cloud as she floated beside her partner in body-hugging frills that clutched her with fingers of scarlet lightning.

Miss angry ocean stopped right in front of me, and without giving my lewd raiment a passing glance, she bit out, "Can you do it?"

I turned and shot Owen a questioning look. He stared at a spot of empty air, then averted his eyes and nodded at me. We didn't actually have that much room to work in. Me, Owen, a folding table, two folding chairs, and a laptop took up most of what we had. Thankfully, we didn't need more than that.

"You must be Abyssal Torrent," I said. I glanced at the red-clad Air Mage. "And you must be Numinous Grasp. Do you have the cash?"

"If you're Rousing Salve," Abyssal Torrent growled.

"I am," I confirmed. "Owen?"

"Well, you've got a ghost following you," Owen said, glancing up at empty air again. "May I?"

Owen stood up and reached out, yellow-green flame kindling around his hand. Abyssal Torrent watched warily while the Numinous Grasp wrung her hands. Suddenly the flames caught, bursting out to fill a humanoid shape before condensing into the form of a slim girl with short hair.

Abyssal Torrent fell to her knees and just stared. Numinous Grasp floated up to the flame-wrought naked girl and latched on with a hug. "I _knew_ you stuck with us."

"Oa coush. Lhere elshe uuld I gtho?"

"I take it you're Radiant Aureole?" I asked.

The flame-wrought girl lifted her head and nodded. She gently nudged Numinous Grasp until the Air Mage let go of her. Numinous Grasp landed, pulled a thick stack of bills out of her Pocket, and thumped it down on the table. Radiant Aureole drifted down next to her. Abyssal Torrent stood up to grab her hand and shoot me a warning glare.

"Five grand," Numinous Grasp said.

Owen snatched up the money and flipped through it eagerly. I held out my hand. Radiant Aureole took it.

"This will hurt, but it'll be fast," I warned.

She nodded. I healed her. Flesh, bone, and blood sprouted through the etheric flame. Radiant Aureole whimpered in pain, but she bore it. Pale skin extinguished the last of the yellow-green fire as soft blonde hair sprouted from her scalp.

With a half pained, half exultant gasp, Radiant Aureole staggered back into the arms of her teammates. She shivered violently, letting out a sound of pleasure that put a blush on Numinous Grasp's face. Both of her teammates hugged her tight.

"Everything," Radiant Aureole gasped as a white t-shirt, with line art of stylized anime eyes set over her breasts, and a pair of tight shorts, materialized on her body. "Everything feels so _much_."

A wickedly playful expression stole onto Abyssal Torrent's face, and she whispered something to Radiant Aureole that made the shivering blonde squeak and blush.

Numinous Grasp smiled at me. "Thank you. Worth every dollar."

"Of course," I said warmly. "Spread the word, would you?"

Numinous Grasp nodded. "We will."

* * *

 _June 14th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_The Apartment_

I ran the electric trimmer over my scalp one last time then switched it off, rinsing my hands off in the sink while I examined my reflection with a skeptical grimace. Even bald, the naked girl in the mirror was objectively beautiful and hot as fuck, but the image still felt off. It wasn't a big deal, because I could regrow my hair in seconds with my healing spell, but that was the only reason I didn't mind.

Drying my hands, I left the bathroom and went over to Martin's room. His glorious alien form sat naked on his bed, next to a small collection of metal clamps and a pair of leather cuffs connected by a thin chain. His cocks were hard and shiny with lube as he absently stroked himself.

His desk camera was on, pointed at the bed and already recording.

Martin stared at my shaved head and his tentacles wriggled. "Why does that have to make me _hungrier_. Augh. Cameron, I'm not so sure about this."

"You liked the taste of my pain fine, didn't you?" I sat next to him and pulled a lower arm around my waist as I looked up to meet his green on green eyes, my body flush with anticipation. "If it turns out you can survive on pain alone, feeding you will be real simple."

Martin let out a breathy groan. I could tell he was still worried, but he was also starving. "What if I can't aim it like that? What if I can't control myself?"

"Then I have a brief, violent encounter with subspace and you try again," I said blithely. I reached up and caressed his face tentacles. "Give me some credit, Martin. You couldn't rape me if you tried."

Martin's face tentacles dropped flat as he gave me an exasperated look. I just smiled blandly. He groaned, and his cocks twitched.

"Okay fine," Martin said, strained. "Let's do this."

I twisted around, getting up on my knees on the bed. Martin rolled up onto his own knees and picked up the cuffs. He draped the chain around his back, setting the cuffs to hang forward at his hips, and I turned around to offer him my arms. With my back to him, Martin took my wrists and buckled me in, binding my arms to him in a backwards hug.

The gooey tips of his lubed cocks bounced off my ass as we shuffled into position. I arched my back and wiggled my hips, splitting down the middle between his two cocks, rubbing one with my pussy and the other with my ass as I glanced over my shoulder with a wanton smile.

Martin pulled back to line himself up, and I moaned rapturously as he fed his thick meat into both of my holes. His lower hands held my hips steady while his upper hands gripped my arms, pulling me onto him until his dual lengths were completely sheathed. His hard shafts throbbed inside me as my butt ground into his hips, stirring waves of creeping heat and blissful tension.

I was so full of cock, and all the cock was in me, all at once, stuffing both my holes, hilted completely in my slutty body. I shivered, feeling his girths shift within both orifices where we were so utterly joined.

Martin's hands went to my breasts, fondling my pliant flesh as he lifted me, bending my body even further. "Okay. Here goes."

His tentacles curled over my face from behind, and the coolness of air on my bare scalp gave way before the wet warmth of his skullcap mouth. His tentacle trunk folded down over my nose and mouth. His other four tentacles curled over my eyes and plugged my ears.

With sight and hearing reduced to darkness and the beating thud of my own heart, all that remained was the feel of Martin's totality. I kissed the underside of his trunk tentacle, playing my tongue along the groove that let me breathe. He was in me twice and on me and all around me with his touch, and the terribly acute intimacy of it was only amplified by how thoroughly my body was being used.

It was so much more intense than I expected.

I couldn't hold back. "Uhhu!"

I tipped into an orgasm, shaking in Martin's grasp as my holes clenched around his cocks, pleasure jolting through me as my flesh squeezed his unyielding girths. Without warning, the pleasure drained out of me, leaving only a hollow pulsation in my invaded groin, before orgasmic sensation burst back into my sensorium just as abruptly.

Martin was all tense, but he relaxed as I finished cumming without issue. I patted his hip where I could reach.

His hands left my breasts, then returned with something cold and hard. I felt him tug on my nipple, and a moment later, harsh metallic teeth bit into my sensitive flesh.

"Nnnngh!" The pain was sharp and harsh, with a building ache underneath. I wanted to struggle, to prevent the next clamp going on, but I knew if I did Martin would stop, and I didn't want that either. The second clamp bit into my other nipple. "Ffffk!"

The pain drained away.

I melted, moaning blissfully as Martin sucked all the pain and discomfort out of my brain, leaving only pleasure. The hot ache in my nipples transformed into a pulsing beat of tingling need that bolted down into my crotch. The dull queasy discomfort in my cock-stuffed ass faded, leaving only the sexual thrill of stretched fullness.

"Ohhh mmmmy ghdsss ysss."

It felt so good. It felt nothing but good. Martin was barely moving and I could feel the pleasure building and compounding on itself with nothing to hold it back. I barely even noticed Martin add two more clamps to the undersides of my breasts, or two more after that to my inner thighs.

Hands tightened on my hips, and Martin moved. His cocks slid halfway out, and my breath stopped. He shoved his cocks back in, hips crushing my ass, and I started cumming.

Bolts of ecstasy wrenched control of my limbs away from me as Martin fucked me. He drove his cocks into me with firm, deliberate strokes, moving me with all four hands as I writhed and shook, half-limp and shaking as my orgasm flared anew every time his thick shafts plowed through my innards.

Every nerve in my body screamed with raging ecstasy, bursting out from my distended loins and rolling across my skin like liquid lightning. My muscles seized, but I was locked in, held, fucked, reduced to orgasmium in nothingness.

After some amount of time, Martin wrenched hard on the nipple clamps. I felt nothing for the first second, because my pain was his, but he left me the throbbing molten ache that ripped through me, a pleasure hidden within that not even a masochist could truly feel. It crackled through my flesh, igniting my ongoing orgasm into...

...whiteout...

I regained awareness with the sensation of Martin pumping cum deep into my belly, for what had to be the third or fourth time from the sheer volume already in me. My head was free, though tentacles curled around my neck and jaw. The clamps were gone, but my nipples throbbed with an agonizing sensitivity against the palms of Martin's upper hands.

The cuffs came loose, and my arms dropped limply to the bed in front of me. Gently, Martin pulled me up against his chest and rolled down onto his back, arranging me on top of him with my limbs sprawled out along his. His cocks were big enough that both stayed in me in the new position even as they softened, and his lower hands caressed my lower torso while his upper hands remained cupped around my breasts.

I stared up at the ceiling and let out the dizzy giggle that bubbled up inside me. Did I actually cum so hard I passed out? Holy shit. That was a first.

"I'd ask how you feel... but I can taste it," Martin hissed tenderly.

"Fuck that was awesome," I giggled. "How...?" I giggled again. "How do you feel? Hungry-wise."

"I'm not hungry anymore," Martin said, "but I think I nibbled on your orgasms a few times. They were hard to avoid."

I nodded, letting my head bobble back and forth on his chest. An idle thought dragged my eyes to the camera on Martin's desk, but no, the angle was fine, just inside the line of my thigh. We probably weren't going to post this one, but I was glad we got a good angle on it for posterity. I giggled again.

"I told you everything would be fine," I sighed. "I am _so_ into the new you."

Martin squeezed me, and his tentacles caressed my face. "Maybe I can get used to this after all."

"I really hope you do," I admitted with a breathless squirm.

Martin laughed softly. "You are providing quite the incentive to try. It is kind of, compelling. Being desired this hard."

"The extremity of the deviant," I mused, stroking his arms.

"Hhh?"

"When you're weird you get stronger reactions in _both_ directions," I said wryly. "Maybe people who don't like you run screaming instead of merely being impolite, but then people who _do_ like you collapse in abject worship of your cockmeat instead of merely being down to fuck."

Martin hissed out a startled laugh, his body shaking under me. "I hadn't thought of it that way. That's a good point."

"Mmm," I sighed, wriggling a little more to savor the lingering twinges of pleasure. "If you can't? If your body feels wrong even once you're used to it? There will be something. Eventually. Don't despair."

I felt Martin nod, his tentacles brushing my scalp. He held me, and the ensuing silence was a comfortable peace.

* * *

 _June 18th, 2027_  
_San Francisco, California_  
_Hunter's Point_

Jeanette the real estate agent entered a combination on the keypad next to a heavy steel door, then pulled out a key to undo the padlock welded above the deadbolt, which she unlocked last with a second key.

"That's a lot of lock," I commented.

The heavyset middle-aged woman offered me a polite smile, as she hauled the door open. "There is some crime in the area. This was the only location that had the square footage you wanted under your price point. But I think this property used to belong to a cable network company that went out of business a few years back. Valuable equipment and whatnot."

I followed her into the dark cavernous space, nodding. I'd adjusted my Style to be slightly more conservative for this. A slightly longer skirt. Solid thigh-socks instead of fishnets. A buttoned overshirt that only showed an inch of midriff.

Jeanette flipped a series of light switches, illuminating the building's empty interior. It was flat concrete all the way through, with bare metal walls and a low ceiling. One wall had a pair of large rolling garage doors.

"It's not much to look at, but it's got water, power, and climate control," Jeanette said. "With some renovations it could be a very, er, versatile space. Depending on what you want to do with it."

I paced across the expanse of concrete. "I'm an independent filmmaker."

"Oh! I see," Jeanette said. "That sounds like fun. So you're, uh, planning to build a movie studio?"

"Something like that, yes," I replied.

I could see my imagined floorplan fitting in the space as I walked off the distances. A building within a building. Indoor parking, maybe even separate single-car garages, three on each street-facing side, for maximum comfort and privacy, with room to spare. The inner building as a block of rooms, with six private little suites, soundproofed, and a central room for the real me to coordinate from.

I could do most of the construction work myself. I knew what I _didn't_ know and needed to look up, I was stronger than any _two_ handymen, and I could be in twelve places at once without risking injury or discomfort to my real body. I wasn't looking forward to it, but I could do it.

"I confess I don't know what you'd need for that," Jeanette admitted. "Do you like it here?"

I turned to her and nodded. "I'll take it."

* * *

 _June 21st, 2027_  
_International Waters, Earth_  
_Central Pacific Skyway Terminal_

Violent wind ripped at my skin, and the roar of jet engines would've long since ruptured my eardrums without my constant healing. I tried for the hundredth time to cast a shield against the wind, but the spell error'd out. I was moving too fast relative to the Earth for the spell to anchor to the planet and the plane wasn't stable enough or around me enough to count as a reference frame. I forced my eyes to stay open anyway, to scan for lights on the water and the thin vertical line, bisecting the sky and gleaming in the moonlight.

With immense relief, I finally saw what I was looking for.

I released the handle of the industrial magnet I'd used to hitch a ride on this jet, and tumbled backwards into the plane's wake. As the jet roared away, I sighed in relief at the relative silence and calm of the merely deafening rush of terminal velocity.

I plummeted out of the sky, and at the last second I flipped over and locked my feet together. The water hit me spectacularly hard. The impact broke both my legs, shattered my elbows, and dislocated my shoulders.

The pain was fleeting, and Perfect Incarnation restored me completely before the bubbles dispersed. I surfaced to get my bearings, then dove and swam towards the lights.

Calm ocean swells on a clear night were still large enough to crash against the steel pylons that anchored this city block of a floating platform to the ocean floor. Cargo ships docked alongside, where automated cranes unloaded full shipping containers and transferred them to the elevator train that was set to climb the cable track that rose from the center of the platform to vanish into the sky high above.

I let the water slam me into the steel and hung on, falling against the gritty metal as the ocean receded. I rolled over and climbed, going up the girder hand over hand at a rapid pace until I reached a catwalk running along the underbelly of the platform.

I followed the catwalk out to one of the empty docks, then leaped out, stepping off a series of shields to make it up to a sheltered deck at the southern corner. Eelesia was there, waiting for me.

"That was unpleasant," I complained.

"Sorry," Eelesia said, wrapping me in a hug. "I just want to be careful. I don't know what's going to happen when we do this, and that scares me."

I brushed my lips along the warm skin of her neck and breathed in her faint girly scent. "I agree with you, but." I ran my fingers along the myriad gaps in her raiment, caressing her slivers of exposed skin. "Is Lyn here?"

Eelesia nodded, leaning into my touch. "She's patrolling the area, just in case."

"Alright." I let the hug end. "I'm ready."

"We should revert and sit down," Eelesia said, pulling a fluffy towel out of her Pocket. She spread it on the floor as her raiment began to fold into itself. "Our souls must be quiescent."

Shortly, I sat facing Eelesia, both of us nude. Our knees touched and we held hands across our laps. At her prompting, I closed my eyes and sank into the structure of my soul.

"Do you feel that?" Eelesia asked softly. "I'm offering myself up to you."

I sifted through the layers of meaning in my mind. I knew and understood all of it now, but _through_ it, beyond it, there was more. There was, _the sum of all passion_ , a waiting conduit. I reached for it.

Eelesia gasped, and a new awareness bloomed in my mind. I could touch her spellshards, understand her spells, and read her aria at its source. The conduit to Eelesia's soul embraced mine, held in place by my acceptance.

Acceptance.

A fundamental personal approval of Eelesia being Eelesia was the tie that now bound her to me and gave me power over her. And just like that I knew. My power over Eelesia mirrored my power over myself.

"Did it work?" Eelesia asked. "Can you feel your own patron bond?"

She sounded so uncertain, curious and lost. Her empathic senses were shut down. Her Sight was closed. She had to ask for what she should've already known.

"Yeah. It's obvious now. Give me a moment."

It took a serious mental contortion to twist my brain around to reject even a facet of my Cameron-ness, but I finally managed it by dwelling on my selfish excitement over Martin's new body. I _knew_ what it felt like to be stuck in an unwanted body. I firmly told myself I was a hypocrite for wanting him to stay monstrous and sexy even if it bothered him to look like that. I abhorred hypocrisy.

The looped bond's hold weakened. I mentally seized it and tore it away from myself. My head spun, and feelings of sudden vulnerability washed over my soul. My spellshards remained, but the assembly space faded out of my awareness, surfaces of thought closing off as I lost that outside perspective on my magic. But at the same time, it felt like a weight lifted, a tension eased. Like there was an endless pressure on my mana that I couldn't feel until it released me.

I sucked in a breath. "Whoa."

Eelesia squirmed impatiently.

"I did it," I reported. "I feel... lighter."

Eelesia smiled brilliantly. "Good. You'll be okay, now. You're saved."

Grinning, I leaned in and she met my lips with a kiss. "Thank you. Really. For everything."

"Of course," Eelesia said happily.

"So," I said. "Moment of truth?"

Eelesia took a deep breath. "If you're sure?"

"Of course," I echoed her wryly.

"Okay," Eelesia said. "Whatever happens, be ready."

Eelesia closed her eyes, and I focused on her. She was already my mentor, my friend, and my lover. To become my patron, all I had to do was let her in magically as well as personally. I opened myself to her.

The bond snapped into place with a rush of completeness, of strength, of wholeness. I could feel in me, and I could feel it through the bond that was already there. I was hers and she was mine and we were linked through each other. Her soul. My soul. We could reach into each other and back into ourselves in a circle of mutual regard.

Eelesia leaned on me and giggled, her skin vividly warm against me. "Oh that feels strange."

"It works," I said, letting go of her hands. "My soul feels... more solid somehow."

Eelesia sat back on her hands and nodded. "Me too." She tilted her head and frowned, twirling easily off one hand to land on her feet and bite her lip. "Something's different." I felt her open her Sight, and she froze, her face ashen.

"What is it?" I stood up. "What do you see?"

"Golden light, in the Veil," Eelesia breathed. "Oh gods."

I grabbed her shoulders. "Eelesia."

She looked at me. "Were in a deadzone. Our mutual bonding blasted a hole in the Veil around us. _We were affected. There's a fifth color band! It was there all along!_ "

A chill crept down my spine. "But the Veil is all or nothing."

"APPARENTLY NOT!"

"Eelesia," I snapped. "Why would the Veil extra-hide a fifth color band of all things? Why that? What does it do?"

Eelesia stared past me. "Golden cities. No, a machine. It covers the whole sky, interwoven with sorcery." She shook under my hands. "The other colors, the other _emotions_ , they collect like snowdrifts and puddles, but this is artifice. Golden towers of boredom reaching into anaspace, golden spires and wires of amusement jutting into kataspace. This... this is what they didn't want us to know. This is what they didn't want _any_ Empathy Mage to know."

"Who?" I prompted her. "The Beacon?"

"Both of them," Eelesia said, staring into nothing. "A machine on each side. The brain of the Puchuu, carved from boredom. The brain of the Beacon, wrought in amusement. I can see the avatars of both, flowing through golden pipes outside the sky and sea. They must cover the planet. We're inside them."

I grabbed her face and made her look at me. "Do they know? Can they see us?"

"Not anymore," Eelesia said, giving me a fierce smile as she... reached out and... _consumed_. "Never again, in fact."

A thunderclap had me spinning around towards the edge of the deck. Out over the water, a hundred feet in the air, a golden shimmer spewed hundreds of little black stuffed lions out in all directions. A few fell to the deck near us, dead or inert. I let out an astonished giggle.

Eelesia walked out into the moonlight, nude and beautiful. She held her arms upraised, her head thrown back in victorious awe. "I am now an existential threat to the Beacon. I can reach so much further and hold so much more power than before... Do you know what I'm going to do?"

I shook my head, admiring her sudden turn for the glorious with quiet glee.

"I'm going to give the Beacon one chance at peace," Eelesia said to me, her long raven hair billowing in the breeze, "and when it tries to destroy me instead, I'm going to _eat_ it, and use its power to tear down the Veil entire."

Eelesia glanced up at the sky above us as she gestured and one of the inert Beacon avatars flew to her hand in a burst of golden sparks. I followed her gaze and saw an armada of colorful dots descending from directly above. A magical girl hit squad, coming in hot. "Time to go?"

"Time to go," Eelesia agreed. "They don't know who you are. We should keep it that way." She turned and shouted, "Lyn!"

Lynette warped into view as Eelesia and I chanted our transformation arias. Once we were in our raiments, Lynette cloaked us, and Eelesia carried us into the Crossroads.

We were not followed.


End file.
